ESPN, Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery Drop Venu Sports Joint Venture

Venu Sports, the embattled sports-streaming service whose big ambitions never made it to a public debut, is no more, as co-owners ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery decided to shut down the venture, effective immediately. 

The surprise move arrives just four days after ESPN’s parent company Disney settled a lawsuit from Fubo Inc. surrounding Venu Sports in the most dramatic way—acquiring a majority stake in Fubo and creating a joint venture with that company. Fubo had previously argued, with initial success, that Venu Sports violated U.S. antitrust law, helping keep the service from ever reaching consumers.

Immediately following the Disney-Fubo deal to create a joint venture also involving Disney’s Hulu + Live TV, industry sources told Front Office Sports that it was still the Venu Sports partners’ firm intention to bring the service to market, though a timetable was uncertain. 

Satellite TV carriers DirecTV and EchoStar, however, then filed letters with the U.S. District Court this week, arguing that the Disney-Fubo deal and its resulting dismissal of legal claims did not “address the underlying competition issues,” and that Disney simply paid Fubo “to ensure cooperation from an aggrieved competitor.”

The Venu Sports shutdown decision arrived nearly a year after the streaming venture was first unveiled, initially without the brand name.

“After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture, and not launch the streaming service,” the partners said in a joint statement. “In an ever-changing marketplace, we determined that it was best to meet the evolving demands of sports fans by focusing on existing products and distribution channels. We are proud of the work to date and grateful to the Venu staff, whom we will support through this transition period.”

The three media entities had each invested more than $400 million into Venu Sports.

Other Corporate Priorities

The demise of Venu Sports allows for some greater simplicity in an increasingly crowded and complex streaming marketplace. Disney already has ESPN+, the joint venture with Fubo, and the forthcoming Flagship direct-to-consumer version of ESPN that Disney CEO Bob Iger has called “the best product the consumer has ever seen in sports.”

WBD, meanwhile, continues on its strategy of placing its sports on the Max streaming service, particularly as it retools its rights portfolio. Fox, whose streaming strategy in many respects has been less pronounced than other major U.S. media entities, perhaps had the most to gain from Venu Sports. Still, Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch had tamped down expectations around the venture, however, suggesting last year it would take five years to reach five million subscribers.

Much of the early discussion around Venu Sports also centered on the breadth of sports content not included in the service, including anything from NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and regional sports networks. 

Gandler a Big Winner

The whole saga is also a huge victory for Fubo cofounder and CEO David Gandler. After previously saying the arrival of Venu Sports would be an existential threat to Fubo’s business, he has since overseen the demise of the venture, as well as a new lease on his own company’s life with the Disney deal that provides a $220 million payment to settle the outstanding legal claims, a new carriage agreement with several ESPN networks, and a supplemental $145 million loan scheduled for January 2026.

Fubo stock, meanwhile, continues to soar. The company’s shares rose another 11% to open Friday’s trading, adding to a broader surge of more than 300% this week.