By Live TV streaming service Fubo has scored a victory in its antitrust lawsuit against Fox, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery’s new joint sports streaming venture – Venu Sports.
A New York federal judge has granted Fubo‘s request for Venu Sports to be blocked on antitrust grounds. The preliminary injunction was granted Friday afternoon following days of testimony from media executives.
Fubo, which has 1.45 million subscribers, filed a lawsuit in February calling Venu a product of a monopolistic ‘cartel’ intent on crushing any competitors.
In her ruling, the judge wrote that sports “remained a crucial and irreplaceable source of revenue and power” in the industry and that “the multi-year monopolistic runway they [Venu] have created for themselves will provide powerful incentives to thwart competition and hike prices on both consumers and other distributors.”
Fubo-rival DirecTV was also happy with Friday’s ruling, saying the ruling “appropriately recognizes the potential harms of allowing major programmers to license their content to an affiliated distributor on more favorable terms than they license their content to third parties.”
In a joint statement, the Venu partners expressed strong disappointment in the decision:
“We respectfully disagree with the court’s ruling and are appealing it. We believe that Fubo’s arguments are wrong on the facts and the law, and that Fubo has failed to prove it is legally entitled to a preliminary injunction. Venu Sports is a pro-competitive option that aims to enhance consumer choice by reaching a segment of viewers who currently are not served by existing subscription options.”
Venu Sports was targeting a launch this Fall with a $43 per month charge. It would boast live and on-demand sports content from fifteen different networks, including Disney’s ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNews, ESPN Plus and ABC; Fox’s Fox, FS1, FS2 and BTN; and Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT, TBS and TruTV.
Source: CNET
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