Shutdown of Venu Sports raises questions about future of sports bundling

The GIST: Venu Sports — the bundled, sports-focused app created by Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery — was shelved Friday without ever hitting the market. After a year of legal battles, the premise of Venu continued to raise antitrust concerns, even after Disney dissolved its contentious lawsuit with FuboTV.

• Venu Sports’ parents may have sidestepped monopolistic concerns for now, but the app’s failure to launch leaves questions around how and even if sports streamers will be able to bundle up and reach cord-cutters.

The bundle: The trio — which owns the rights to over 60% of all live sports content in the U.S. — proposed the joint platform last February, with competing sports streamer FuboTV filing an antitrust lawsuit soon after. In August, a U.S. district judge sided with FuboTV and granted a preliminary injunction to block Venu, which was affirmed by the DOJ and 17 state attorneys general.

• FuboTV dropped its lawsuit as part of its 70% stake sale to Disney last week, but Disney’s purchase of its former foe reportedly raised eyebrows at the DOJ and other media companies. Drama.

The market: Demand for sports has kept cable alive in the streaming era, but it was uncertain how Venu would play out for the 118M Americans set to stream sports in 2025. The bundle’s selling point was access to 14 linear networks for a low(er) monthly price, but aggregating sports content could limit consumer choice and raise prices due to a lack of competition.

The future: Streamers pose a unique opportunity for sports — and advertisers — to reach global audiences beyond the traditional cable model. Leading worldwide streamer Netflix has seen success with its sports offerings: Its Mike Tyson–Jake Paul fight drew 108M live global viewers, and its Christmas Day NFL broadcasts averaged 26.5M viewers after selling out ad inventory.

• Still, fragmentation will continue to be a problem on both cable and streaming. Offering sports all in one place, like streaming device Roku does, certainly helps, but something like Venu is sure to field antitrust concerns. Still, never say never.