Disney, Fox and Warner Bros Discovery reveal price for new sports streaming service
Disney, Fox and Warner Bros Discovery's new sports streaming service, Venu Sports, is launching this fall at the price of $42.99 a month, the trio of media giants announced Thursday.
Considered by some to be the equivalent of Hulu for sports, Venu will include games from the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, WNBA, NASCAR and college sports, as well as golf, tennis and soccer. Besides games, there will be studio shows, pre- and post-game programming and access to ESPN's 30 for 30 library, ESPN Films and documentaries from Fox Sports Films.
The platform will feature offerings from 14 linear networks — ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC Network, ACC Network, ESPNEWS, ABC, FOX, FS1, FS2, Big Ten Network, TNT, TBS, truTV — as well as ESPN+.
Subscribers will have the ability to bundle the product with Disney+, Hulu and/or Max.
"We will launch at a compelling price point that will appeal to the cord cutter and cord-never fans currently not served by existing pay TV packages," Venu Sports CEO Pete Distad said in a statement.
Venu Sports is coming amid increased competition in the business of streaming sporting events, with industry giants including Amazon and Netflix each striking deals with various sports leagues to add content for their streaming customers.
Whether it's sports or more general programming, entertainment and media giants like Comcast-owned NBCUniversal, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global (the parent company of CBS News) have struggled to turn a profit on streaming given the hefty costs of producing content. Those companies trail Netflix, which achieved critical mass and profitability before its streaming rivals.
But while the Venu Sports service touts a big game, anyone who signs up will actually miss a ton of games, particularly in football and basketball, said Richard Greenfield, an analyst at LightShed Partners. Greenfield and other analysts point out that under Venu's deal, New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles fans would miss five televised games while Dallas Cowboys fans would miss four games. That's because those Giants, Eagles and Cowboys games are scheduled this upcoming season to be broadcast on networks, such as CBS (the parent company of CBS News), NBC, NFL Network, that are not affiliated with Fox, Disney or Warner Bros. Discovery.
"We find it hard to believe any real NFL fan would be OK missing 4-5 games out of a 17-game season," Greenfield wrote in an investors note Thursday. "Additionally, Venu will only have one-third of the NBA games after next season, as NBC and Prime Video take over Turner's package."
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.