Fubo wins order to delay Disney-Fox-Warner’s live sports broadcaster Venu

Sports streaming service Fubo has temporarily fended off a major financial threat from Disney-Fox-Warner’s potential rival Venu Sports and its collection of sports broadcasting licenses thanks to a recent court ruling. A federal judge in the Southern District of New York has granted Fubo’s request to stay its antitrust lawsuit against the sports broadcasting joint venture and its parent companies.

US District Judge Margaret Garnett wrote in an opinion released earlier today that a concentrated concentration of media power would eliminate consumer choice. The launch of Venu will also “increase prices for buyers and other distributors” and create a “multi-year monopolistic road” in the sports broadcasting sector for Disney, Fox and Warner.

“Even thought [joint venture] defendants swear that such price gouging and anti-competitive behavior would not actually occur (although…there is good reason to believe that it would),” said the opinion, “one purpose of antitrust laws is to prevent the creation of anticompetitive incentives in the first place. so American consumers don’t have to just take their word for it and hope for the best. “

Garnett also wrote that the order is necessary because of “significant damages that funds cannot adequately repair” if Fox-Disney-Warner’s Venu Sports moves forward.

Fox-Disney-Warner first announced plans to launch a live sports channel in February and later revealed the name and price of its Venu Sports streaming service. The sports broadcasting joint venture will cost viewers $42.99 per month with a free seven-day trial and promises 14 channels of live sporting events with access to ESPN+ and its four affiliate channels, the Fox network and both of its Fox Sports channels and more. of Warner Bros.-owned cable networks such as TNT and TruTV, according to a press release.

Fubo filed his lawsuit a few weeks after Fox-Disney-Warner’s initial announcement. Fubo’s antitrust lawsuit accused the media trio of conducting a “year-long campaign” to undermine its sports streaming service. The suit also said the joint venture would concentrate too many businesses on one service and would harm competition and raise prices for viewers and distributors.

The order temporarily suspends Fox-Disney-Warner’s plans for Venu Sports. Its fate will ultimately be decided by a federal antitrust case.