It’s been a year of collaboration for studios and streamers.
Paramount and Skydance agreed to merge. Apple TV+, Netflix, and Peacock got rolled into a bundle as part of Comcast’s StreamSaver product. And then, of course, we have Venu Sports, the joint sports streaming venture between Warner Bros. Discovery, ESPN, and Fox, which is perhaps the most mysterious of them all.
Venu, which is slated to roll out this fall, was first announced in February, and there have been some announcements about the joint organization’s leadership team, which includes FanDuel and Apple TV+ alums, and its pricing, which was on Aug. 1 revealed to be $42.99 a month for viewers to get access to professional leagues like the NFL as well as college matchups. But more about the package, including its premiere date, as well as information about how sports fans will be able to watch, remains undisclosed as football season creeps closer.
Beyond that, Venu is still facing regulatory scrutiny from US lawmakers, and it is staring down a lawsuit from sports-centric streamer Fubo, with antitrust concerns at the center of both.
With the NFL season kicking off in just over a month, we rounded up what we do know about the service, as well as what questions remain.
The branding: Venu’s name and branding were first revealed in May, with Venu being a reference to sports venues (get it?) and orange-and-white lettering contained within a logo that contrasts with a midnight-blue background.
Sunny Bonnell, CEO and co-founder of brand transformation outfit Motto, described the logo’s colors as “sports-oriented,” something that could help the service stand out when it debuts.
“In that competitive sports streaming market, familiarity with colors like that can be a very powerful tool to attract and retain viewers,” she said.
The executive team: Venu also has a slate of streaming and sports marketing vets in its C-suite. Its first major hire, announced back in March, was Pete Distad, who’s held marketing and distribution roles at Apple and Hulu and is running the show as CEO. Other leadership hires include CMO Brian Borkowski, who previously led marketing for FanDuel, CBO Tim Connolly, who headed up subscriber growth at Apple TV+, and CTO Skarpi Hedinsson, who previously worked for the Los Angeles Rams.
The programming: Venu, which will run customers $42.99 a month, will provide subscribers with access to more than a dozen linear sports networks, including ESPN, ABC, FOX, TNT, and TBS, along with pre- and post-show programming and on-demand programming like ESPN’s 30 For 30 docuseries library, the company shared on August 1. With that said, blackouts will still apply.
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What we don’t know: Well, a lot. Details on the bundle’s marketing strategy and exact release date have still not been made public. With that said, ESPN content head Burke Magnus confirmed late last month on the podcast Sports Media with Richard Deitsch that the service would be out “in time for football season.”
More details were set to be shared at a press conference scheduled for July 23, but a few days prior, it was postponed.
The scrutiny: As Venu presumably plans for its debut, it’s facing an antitrust lawsuit from its competitor Fubo, a virtual MVPD that made a name for itself offering cord-cutters the ability to watch sports via streaming, over antitrust concerns. Fubo claims that the companies involved in Venu have “engaged in a years-long campaign to block Fubo’s innovative sports-first streaming business, resulting in significant harm to both Fubo and consumers,” according to a press release from Fubo announcing the suit.
Venu is also currently facing questions from Reps. Joaquin Castro and Jerry Nadler, who expressed concerns about the companies’ “tremendous influence over pricing” in live sports on TV, according to a letter they addressed to Disney CEO Bob Iger, Fox CEO and executive chair Lachlan Murdoch, and WBD CEO David Zaslav in April. This week Castro also signed a letter, along with Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, asking the Department of Justice to investigate Venu.
After asking the companies involved in Venu to submit responses to a list of questions and meeting with representatives from the three companies involved in the bundle, the lawmakers issued a letter reiterating their concerns in June.
“We find it difficult to understand how your companies can both promise not to share competitively sensitive information and also evaluate the success of the joint venture on a company-by-company basis,” the letter read. “Your repeated assertion that the details of the joint venture have not yet been finalized is also hard to believe, given that the joint venture is projected to roll out in mere months.”
The companies were asked to respond to the Congressmen’s concerns again by June 21. Castro’s press secretary, Lauren Sierra, declined to share further information with Marketing Brew.
Update August 1, 2024: This piece has been updated with additional information about Venu’s pricing and programming.
Update August 8, 2024: This piece has been updated with additional information about regulatory concerns around Venu.