Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
An ad for Venu Sports, Disney’s sports streaming venture, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox, hanging at Fanatics Fest in New York on August 16, 2024.
Jessica Golden | CNBC
disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery canceled plans to launch sports streaming service Venu, the companies said in a joint statement on Friday.
“After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to terminate the joint venture with Venu Sports and not to launch a streaming service,” the statement said. “In an ever-changing market, we decided we could best meet the growing demands of sports fans by focusing on existing products and distribution channels. We are proud of the work done at Venu to date and are grateful to the Venu employees we will be supporting during this transition period.”
Venu was first announced in February and is intended to combine the live sports assets of Disney-owned Fox, WBD and ESPN. It was originally scheduled to launch before the start of the NFL season in September, but was delayed in part due to a lawsuit from streamer Fubo, which argued the platform would be anti-competitive.
There was a dispute settled earlier this week as part of a deal between Disney and Fubo to combine the media giant’s Hulu+ Live TV with Fubo’s Internet TV package.
Fubo shares rose about 5% in premarket trading on Friday. Shares surged 250% on Monday after the Disney deal was announced.
— CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo contributed to this report.
This is hot news. Please refresh for updates.
