Three Democrats have asked the Department of Justice to investigate and possibly halt the new direct-to-consumer service Venu. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D., Texas) called for the DOJ to look into whether the Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery joint venture “violates antitrust or telecommunications laws or regulations.”
News of their letter was first reported by The Athletic.
Venu is set to launch this fall at a price of $42.99 per month, offering a cheaper alternative to cable that still gives fans the full slate of live and on-demand programming on all of their respective properties. Through Venu, fans could watch the NBA on ESPN, WNBA on ABC, football on Fox, baseball on TNT, and March Madness on TBS and truTV. Earlier this year, WBD CEO David Zaslav said Venu wants to go after the more than 60 million U.S. households without cable.
Warren, Sanders, and Castro argued Venu is “poised to control more than 80 percent of nationally broadcast sports and half of all national sports content, putting it in a position to exercise monopoly power over televised sports. The market power of its three giant parent companies would enable it to discriminate against competitors and increase prices for consumers.”
The trio also urged the Federal Communications Commission to get involved. “DOJ and FCC should closely scrutinize this transaction and take immediate action to block it if it violates antitrust law, or if it does not serve the ‘public interest, convenience, and necessity,’” they concluded, citing a phrase key to the FCC’s mission.
The legislators aren’t the only ones questioning Venu’s potential monopolization of sports streaming. FuboTV filed a federal antitrust lawsuit in February to oppose the new service. Hearings for Fubo’s request for a preliminary injunction began Tuesday morning and is scheduled to include 19 witnesses through Friday.
