Disney, Fox and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) have abandoned plans to launch Venu Sports, their live sports joint venture, after it ran into substantial legal opposition.

Shares of WBD and Fox fell more than 1 per cent on the news, while FuboTV’s shares were up 7 per cent in premarket trading. The sport streaming venture was established by the three media groups by bundling their portfolios of sports rights including the NFL, the NBA and the FIFA World Cup. It had plans for 5 million subscribers in its first year.

“After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture and not launch the streaming service,” the companies said.

The news comes days after smaller rival FuboTV asked the US District Court in Manhattan to dismiss its lawsuit against Venu Sports. Last year it had accused the companies of engaging in anti-competitive behaviour that would thwart competition for sports fans.

The US Justice Department and 16 US states said in court filings last year that they support a court order won by FuboTV in August that temporarily blocked Disney, Fox and WBD from launching a competing sports streaming venture.

Earlier this week Fubo and Disney announced a newco JV that would contain all their live streaming channels.

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Categories: Articles, Broadcast, OTT, Pay TV

Tags: Disney, Fox, fubo, Venu Sports, WBD