Sportscasters' plans to be everything to everyone are overwhelming
If you can’t beat ’em, buy ’em.
That appeared to be the strategy behind Disney’s acquisition of majority control of Fubo, which had won an injunction to block Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox from launching the sports streaming service Venu. The lawsuit is considered settled, and Disney plans to merge its Hulu + Live TV with Fubo.
And Venu might launch soon. Just what we need – another streamer.
Last February, the broadcasting trio announced a service that would give sports fans who had grown tired of searching for their games one spot to find them. Never mind that Paramount Global, which owns CBS, and NBCUniversal weren’t included.
Fubo, a live-TV streaming service friendly to sports channels, sued because the companies planned to provide a package of sports channels they wouldn’t allow Fubo to sell. The irony is, after Fubo accused the trio of violating antitrust laws by reducing competition, they ended up doing just that. All three are making payments to Fubo, which will be able to create the “skinny” bundle it sought.
It’s all part of the broadcasters’ plans to be everywhere everyone is. Sports have been keeping the cable bundle alive – on life support, at least – and now they’re fueling the push to streaming. Legacy companies see their linear viewership sinking from cord-cutting and can’t be left behind.
This fall, Disney’s ESPN will launch its own direct-to-consumer service that will give subscribers access to all of its channels and more. That means ESPN will be available to stream through its own DTC service, Venu, Fubo, Hulu and other providers, all at different prices. Again, everywhere everyone is.
But sports are no longer the sole property of legacy companies. Netflix showed two NFL games on Christmas and now airs WWE’s weekly “Raw.” Prime Video is adding the NBA to its stable of sports. NBCU is filling Peacock with sports and making many games exclusive, not simulcast on NBC or USA.
It’s enough to make viewers long for the good old days of cable when everything was in one place. Venu is being promoted as a means to address that, but it’s incomplete. For instance, Venu subscribers will be able to watch March Madness on TBS, TNT and truTV, but not on CBS. They’ll need to add Paramount+ to get every game of the NCAA Tournament.
The fallout from the Fubo-Hulu merger is potentially good news for Chicago viewers. Chicago Sports Network, the new home of the Blackhawks, Bulls and White Sox, is on Fubo but not Hulu, which had stopped carrying most regional sports networks. Though it might take 12-18 months for the merger to go through, CHSN could widen its distribution with little effort.
At last count, Hulu + Live TV reportedly had 4.6 million subscribers to Fubo’s 1.6 million. Together, they’d form the second-biggest vMVPD (virtual multichannel video programming distributor) behind YouTube TV, which had 8 million subscribers last February. And with nothing afoot on the Comcast front, CHSN would take any subscriber boost it can get.
For years, cable subscribers craved a la carte options. File all this under the category “Careful what you wish for.” What’s a sports fan to do with games spread across the broadcast spectrum, some behind a second paywall? The answer is specific to your viewing and spending habits. Unfortunately, it might keep you from watching games you used to watch.
Sports viewing has never been more fragmented, and unlike Disney, fans can’t afford to buy ’em all.