Venu, Vidi, Vici
My hope for you, dear reader, in life: find yourself someone who loves you as much as Disney loves streaming bundle options. I mean, they can't stop adding them. Want to do a streaming deal? Talk to Disney.
Or sue them.
That's what Fubo did – and it worked! As today we get the news that not only is Disney settling the lawsuit, which was brought after they tried to launch Venu – a sports streaming service not to be confused with Fubo or Hulu, even though all have similar sounding stupid names – alongside Fox and Warner Bros Discovery, but they're merging Fubo with Hulu + Live TV as a result. Hulu + Live TV is the straightforward, yet somehow confusing name of their live TV vMVPD (streaming cable replacement). It's not the same as Hulu, which is a more pure-play streaming service, but also has some traditional TV content alongside some originals. But Hulu is included in Hulu + Live TV. Though Live TV isn't included with Hulu.
Are you following this? Good for you. It's about to get a lot worse!
With this new merger, a new company will be formed, 70% controlled by Disney, 30% controlled by Fubo, which will presumably allow Fubo to be bundled with Hulu + Live TV. But the only thing stated for sure right now is that both Fubo and Hulu + Live TV will continue to be available as stand-alone services. So you'll be able to subscribe to Fubo. Or Hulu + Live TV. Or Fubo + Hulu + Live TV. Also, I think Fubo + Hulu (without Live TV). Though that may not be a sanctioned bundle because it's not a part of this deal, as Hulu is staying with Disney. Just Hulu + Live TV – which, yes, includes Hulu – is going to this new venture.1 Got it?
With the deal, Fubo will also be allowed to create new "skinny bundles" featuring Disney's channels. So presumably that will mean Fubo can offer something like ESPN + ABC + other sports rights that they have access to. This sounds a lot like... Venu! The whole reason for the lawsuit in the first place!
But now that Fubo can create their own Venu, they're seemingly happy to let Venu itself launch. Why on Earth Disney still wants to launch that, nobody knows. What started out sounding like a good idea on paper, quickly seemed more like a placeholder to give Disney time to get their stand-alone ESPN streaming service out the door (which for some reason has taken multiple years and won't launch until Fall 2025). Then Fubo sued and their case actually looked quite good and that meant Venu would never see the light of day – hence this settlement.
But also in the intervening months, several other pieces have moved on the board. Notably, Warner Bros Discovery, one of the Venu partners, lost their most important sports rights in the NBA on TNT. That left Disney trying to help bolster WBD's offerings by offloading some of their own leftover sports content as WBD scrambled to save their carriage fees. But that left Venu making even less sense. And so everyone just presumed they were going to let it die a quiet death.
But no! While they're not explicitly stating it, all of the reports – some citing sources – are now expecting Venu to actually launch. You know, to compete with Disney's new partner Fubo. And the stand-alone ESPN since, naturally, Venu will feature a ton of ESPN content. Also, so now too will Fubo.
All of these companies will be sure to note that choice is a good thing, which is certainly true, until you have the most confusing choices to make in the history of streaming to date – and that's saying something!
The good news for all of these players is that the vMVPD leader, YouTube TV, just crapped the bed with a massive price hike – which, to be fair, brings it largely in line with Hulu + Live TV prices, but again, that also includes Hulu. Oh and Disney+, and ESPN+. Oh my god, I almost forgot ESPN+ – yet another streaming service which is different from the aforementioned new forthcoming ESPN streaming service, but will presumably be a part of it, but also will undoubtedly still exist by itself. Why? Nobody knows.
ANYWAY, YouTube TV's ridiculous price hike has opened the door to people, myself included, looking at other options. Disney is now giving us many options!
Honestly, I have no idea what to do here. It may come down to who has the best RSN offerings – but guess what? Others including Amazon and yes, ESPN are likely getting into that game as well.
Here's what I want. It's what everyone wants: a single place to watch all sports. I mean, ideally all content, but just sports will do for now. I think Amazon or ESPN have a shot to build this – but Netflix is now starting to elbow their way in too, and they don't play nicely with anyone when it comes to bundles (well, except this weird Comcast discount bargain basement one – but even then, they don't allow their content to be shown in a unified manner alongside the content of other services).
We need an iTunes-like unified hub on our television screens for all of this. Instead, Disney is giving us a piece of glass shattered into a million little pieces by a baseball going through it. But you can choose which shard to pick up!
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
1 It must be noted that this also feels like a fairly savvy way for Disney to get Hulu + Live TV off their books. While these services have been doing well as cable collapses, they're really just stop-gaps themselves to our fully streaming future. And they're getting very expensive to operate -- hence, the YouTube TV price hikes from $35 all the way up to the point of being as expensive as old school cable now.