Venu Sports. That's the name of the joint sports streaming venture of ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery which was announced on Thursday, May 16 by the CEO of the venture Pete Distad. The service is expected to launch in the fall of this year, but there is one major problem looming over the service — what will happen if WBD loses out on the NBA?
WBD (WBD) holds the broadcasting rights to the NBA, and would bring that into the service together with its other sports rights like the NHL and NCAA Men's March Madness. However, reports over the last few weeks have indicated that WBD is in jeopardy of losing its NBA broadcasting rights package to Comcast's (CMCSA) NBC starting the 2025-26 NBA season.
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So what would happen to the service if WBD loses the NBA? According to Puck's John Ourand, not much.
The sports correspondent wrote in his newsletter "The Varsity" on Friday, May 17 that the joint service will likely push through and that "there's almost no chance that Venu would kick out WBD altogether."
The likelihood is that the streamer will just pay TNT less because it will lose one of its valuable assets.
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Bundling ESPN, WBD, and Fox's rights together still allows for fans to watch the NBA as ESPN reportedly has a framework agreement with the NBA to keep the league's top package.
More NBA media rights:
- Warner Bros. Discovery is in trouble after Comcast offers NBA a massive deal
- Charles Barkley could wind up on ESPN or Amazon in the near future
- NBA looks poised to come to streaming after reported framework deal with Amazon
The three will also be able to offer a slew of other sports leagues and events in one package, such as the NFL on Sunday afternoons and Monday nights via Fox and ESPN, U.S. soccer matches via WBD, and the U.S. Open for tennis.
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