Will Venu Sports Ever Launch? Here’s Where the Legal Battle Is Happening

Published: September 25, 2024

Will Venu Sports Ever Launch? Here’s Where the Legal Battle Is Happening

Author: Movieguide® Contributor

Venu Sports has appealed to the court in an effort to enable it to launch a sports streaming service.

Venu, which is backed by Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery, has filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit asking for permission to launch its streaming platform and to overturn an injunction issued against it last month by competitor Fubo.

Movieguide® previously reported:

Launch of ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Venu Sports, dubbed The “future home of sports streaming” was temporarily blocked after Fubo, a smaller sports streaming platform, filed for a temporary injunction.

For ESPN“U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Garnett in the Southern District of New York said in her 69-page ruling issued Friday that Fubo would likely succeed in proving that the joint venture would violate antitrust laws and that Fubo and consumers ‘would suffer irreparable harm in the absence of an injunction.’”

Judge Garnett ruled there was “substantial evidence” to support Fubo’s claims that Fox, Disney and Warner Bros. control even more than the 54% of U.S. sporting rights it already claims.

“This means that Disney, Fox and (Warner Bros. Discovery) are individually significant players in live sports licensing who otherwise compete with each other both for the rights to broadcast sports and to attract viewers to their live sports programming. But together they dominate,” she said in her ruling.

In the lawsuit, Venu claims the injunction “denies consumers a new, cheaper, innovative product — in order to protect Fubo from increased competition. That’s the opposite of what antitrust laws seek to achieve,” according to Deadline.

They also claimed that Fubo “may not be happy” with their offer to increase production and lower prices, “but consumers will be happy.”

Fubo, however, claims that Venu’s bundling practices are designed to shut down the company and its competitors.

Their antitrust lawsuit also targets “developers’ negotiating approach,” according to Deadline, “which the company claims forced it to offer less desirable channels in order to access the most desirable ones. The result, Fubo says, is higher prices for consumers.”

Fubo has until November 4 to file a response to Venu’s appeal.