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The sports world was dealt a big surprise on Monday when Disney announced that it had bought Fubo, putting an end to litigation and allowing joint streaming bundle Venu Sports to move forward. Fubo had previously strongly argued against the new sports streaming service.
“This transaction represents an incredible opportunity to build a consumer-first, live TV streaming company,” said Fubo cofounder and CEO David Gandler in an investor call early Monday. “At deal close, our company is expected to become immediately cash-flow positive, instantly making Fubo the major player in the streaming space.”
Gandler also stated on the call, “Fubo will now be able to provide even more sports, including ESPN+, through amended distribution agreements with Disney as well as Fox. And crucially, Fubo has the potential to create skinnier sports news and entertainment bundles according to consumer needs.”
David Gandler’s statements on Monday stand in stark contrast to the lawsuit Fubo had filed against the creation of Venu Sports.
“For decades, Defendants have leveraged their iron grip on sports content to extract billions of dollars in supra-competitive profits from distributors and consumers,” the lawsuit read. “Defendants earned many of these profits by ‘bundling’ their commercially critical sports content with other, less desirable content—forcing sports fans to purchase channels they did not want.”
Now, Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery can move forward with Venu Sports, which aims to provide sports broadcasts on networks like ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, Fox, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, truTV and ESPN+ all in one streaming service app.
It was announced in August that the new Venu Sports streaming bundle will cost $42.99 per month and will include “thousands of live sports events from all the major professional sports leagues and top college conferences.”
On Monday, following Disney’s purchase of Fubo, Disney EVP and head of corporate development Justin Warbrooke said in a statement, “This combination will allow both Hulu+ Live TV and Fubo to enhance and expand their virtual MVPD offerings and provide consumers with even more choice and flexibility. We have confidence in the Fubo management team and their ability to grow the business, delivering high-quality offerings that serve subscribers with the content they want and offering great value.”
Unfortunately, this deal does nothing to help fans that are still being forced to subscribe to Peacock, Amazon Prime and/or YouTubeTV to have full access to all of their sports.