• by Wayne Friedman , January 9, 2025

DirecTV and EchoStar (Dish Network) continued this week to back legal rulings against the sports-focused joint venture platform Venu Sports from launching. DirecTV and EchoStar requested that a U.S. District Court in New York “reject any effort by the Defendants to vacate any prior rulings or findings in this case.”

This involved a virtual pay TV service, Fubo, filing a lawsuit against the proposed Venu Sports -- a joint venture of Walt Disney, Fox Corp. and Warner Bros. Distribution -- claiming the business would be anti-competitive and violate antitrust rules.

“These transactions do nothing to resolve the underlying antitrust violations the court and DOJ [Department of Justice] have correctly identified,” said a DirecTV letter from its general counsel Michael Hartman to U.S. District Court Judge Margaret Garnett.

“Rather, it is a form of evading judicial review of the anticompetitive actions of Venu and its shareholders at the collective expense of fans, public institutions, leagues, conferences, teams, and players.”

A similar letter was sent by EchoStar's counsel.

The DirecTV letter said the move would allow the Venu Sports joint-venture to continue, which would allow defendants to “drive out competitors”, like DirecTV, from the live pay TV market. The EchoStar letter said: “Through the settlement and acquisition, the defendants have purchased their way out of their antitrust violation.”

In August, the court issued its preliminary injunction -- preventing defendants from moving forward with the joint venture, effectively allowing the Fubo lawsuit to continue against Disney, Fox Corp. and WBD.

The DOJ filed an amicus brief in the case expressing the same conclusion.

Disney recently agreed to buy a 70% stake in Fubo for $220 million (plus a $145 million loan). Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery added to the transaction by agreeing to make cash payments to Fubo.

On Friday, Disney, Fox Corp. and Warner Bros. Discovery in a statement announced that Venu Sports would not move ahead and launch as a new major streaming platform.

As part of the deal, Disney said it would move Hulu + Live TV, its virtual pay TV platform, to Fubo to be combined with its virtual pay TV platform Fubo TV.

Venu Sports was planned to be a sports-focused streaming platform, amassing massive sports content from major leagues -- NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball and NHL under one roof -- from 14 live sports and entertainment channels, including ESPN, TNT, TBS, ABC, Fox and Fox Sports.

This story has been updated.