{"id":118914,"date":"2024-08-16T20:21:11","date_gmt":"2024-08-16T20:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/16\/court-blocks-disney-fox-wbd-sports-streaming-bundle\/"},"modified":"2024-08-16T20:21:11","modified_gmt":"2024-08-16T20:21:11","slug":"court-blocks-disney-fox-wbd-sports-streaming-bundle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/16\/court-blocks-disney-fox-wbd-sports-streaming-bundle\/","title":{"rendered":"Court blocks Disney-Fox-WBD sports streaming bundle"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The three entertainment companies had sought to create a new streaming service called Venu Sports that would launch this fall and charge $42.99 a month for access to networks across their portfolios<\/a>, including ESPN, Fox Sports, and TNT. Bundling the sports content from all three companies would put other distributors like Fubo at \u201can extreme competitive disadvantage,\u201d Fubo said at the time<\/a>. DirecTV and Dish sided with Fubo<\/a> in the case.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The deal also raised alarms for lawmakers like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX), who recently asked federal enforcers to investigate<\/a>. They warned the joint venture (JV) could put the companies \u201cin a position to exercise monopoly power over televised sports\u201d and effectively require competitors to negotiate with the JV companies \u201cfor access to over half of the major sporting licensing rights while simultaneously competing against these companies to offer the best product to broadcast or stream these programs.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Southern District of New York Judge Margaret Garnett said Fubo would likely succeed on the merits in arguing the deal violates the Clayton Act, which governs mergers and acquisitions, and granted a preliminary injunction blocking it. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cPut simply, the antitrust problem presented by the JV is as follows: if the JV is allowed to launch, it will be the only option on the market for those television consumers who want to spend their money on multiple live sports channels they love to watch, but not on superfluous entertainment channels they do not,\u201d Garnett wrote. \u201cAnd the JV\u2019s corporate owners\u2014the JV Defendants\u2014are the same players that (1) used their longstanding bundling practices to create the void in the pay TV market tailor-made for the live-sports-only JV to fill, and also (2) exercise near-monopolistic control over the ability for a different live-sports-only streaming service to exist and compete with the JV.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Fubo co-founder and CEO David Gandler called the decision a victory for both Fubo and consumers. \u201cThis decision will help ensure that consumers have access to a more competitive marketplace with multiple sports streaming options,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cBut our fight continues. Fubo has said all along that we seek equal treatment from these media giants, and a level playing field in our industry. The proposed joint venture was only the latest example of anticompetitive practices that The Walt Disney Company, FOX Corp. and Warner Bros. Discovery have consistently engaged in for many years. We believe these practices monopolize the market, stifle competition and cheat consumers from deserved choice.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Venu Sports did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The three entertainment companies had sought to create a new streaming service called Venu Sports that would launch this fall and charge $42.99 a month for access to networks across their portfolios, including ESPN, Fox Sports, and TNT. Bundling the sports content from all three companies would put other distributors like Fubo at \u201can extreme […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":118915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-118914","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}