Price Of ESPN-Fox-WBD Streaming Bundle Venu Sports Is Revealed

Venu Sports, the streaming joint venture of Disney-ESPN, Fox Corp. and Warner Bros. Discovery, will cost $42.99 when it launches in the fall.

The price is at the top end of the streaming market, but it is consistent with Venu’s proposition to bring linear feeds of 14 sports-centric networks to consumers without a full pay-TV subscription. Most Wall Street analysts and streaming pundits projected the price would likely be in the $40 to $50 monthly range.

Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch has said his company sees Venu as complementary to the main pay bundle, with internal forecasts calling for 5 million subscribers in its first five years. The JV member companies are pushing forward with the stand-alone offering while continuing to look for increased distribution fees from their pay-TV partners. That balancing act has been complicated at times, as Disney discovered during its showdown with Charter Communications last year, when ESPN programming like college football and U.S. Open tennis was affected by a carriage fight.

ESPN still plans to launch a flagship stand-alone streaming service in about a year, though details of its pricing and programming remain under wraps. WBD has added a sports subscription tier to Max, while Fox remains unique in the media sector for not having a broad-audience subscription streamer.

The overall value proposition of Venu is at risk of taking a hit if WBD loses rights to the NBA, as is expected after the 2024-25 season. The league last month announced $77 billion in rights deals over 11 years with Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon. WBD has sued the NBA, insisting it had the contractual right to match Amazon’s offer.

Regardless of the NBA outcome, avid sports fans will need more than Venu to keep current. NBCU and Paramount Global are not part of the venture, which leaves out a large swath of NFL, college sports, soccer, golf and other top draws.

A seven-day free trial is available upon initial sign-up. Venu says its launch price will be made available for 12 months from the start of a subscription, with no long-term contract.

“With an impressive portfolio of sports programming, Venu will provide sports fans in the U.S. with a single destination for watching many of the most sought-after games and events,” Venu Sports CEO Pete Distad said. “We’re building Venu from the ground up for fans who want seamless access to watch the sports they love, and we will launch at a compelling price point that will appeal to the cord cutter and cord never fans currently not served by existing pay TV packages.”

Linear networks offered via Venu include ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, FOX, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS and truTV. Programming from ESPN+ and on-demand fare from all three partners are also part of the offering.