1. A TV streaming service is at risk of being shut down before it even launches. Venu, the new joint venture between Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery, was preparing for a fall 2024 launch and was to feature sports programming not already available on other platforms. However, a U.S. District Court recently sided with existing sports streamer Fubo, saying the existence of Venu would violate existing antitrust laws. Disney, for their part, is already looking ahead to the launch of an ESPN streaming service code named Flaghip. For WBD, a Venu shutdown would be the latest hurdle for a company that just lost the rights to the NBA. Fox still has FOX Sports, but is also clearly looking to expand. All three companies have appealed the decision. Do you think Venu should be allowed to launch, or should the current court decision be upheld?
2. With Paramount Global set to merge with Skydance, the future direction of Paramount+ as a streamer is reportedly in question. One option being floated around is merging Paramount+ with another streamer, which would effectively shut down Paramount+ as a standalone service. Another is creating a bundle with Paramount+ and one or more other streamers, to be packaged together at a single price. Yet another is licensing content out to other streamers, much like how Paramount licensed School Spirits to Netflix. If you had to make the decision, which option would you choose?
3. Disney and DirecTV’s agreement ends Sunday, September 1, and as of this writing the two sides have not come to terms on a new deal. This leaves DirecTV’s customers at risk of blackouts to Disney’s owned-and-operated ABC stations as well as Disney-owned cable networks. Such a blackout with be the third within the past nine months for DirecTV. DirecTV says the holdup is they want to offer smaller cable packages, such as a sports-centric package, that do not require customers having to pay for a bunch of stations they don’t watch. Disney says they are not opposed to this, but blames DirecTV for not putting enough effort into improving their platform. If you had to pick a side, who would you side with in these negotiations?