(Reuters) – Walt Disney, Fox and Warner Bros Discovery on Friday abandoned plans to launch Venu Sports, their live sports joint venture, pulling the plug on a much-heralded effort that ran into substantial legal opposition.
Shares of Warner Bros Discovery and Fox fell more than 1%, while FuboTV’s shares were up 7% in premarket trading.
The streaming venture was established by the three media firms by bundling their broad portfolio of sports rights including the National Football League, the National Basketball Association and the FIFA World Cup.
It had plans for 5 million subscribers in its first year.
“After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture and not launch the streaming service,” the companies said.
The news comes days after smaller rival FuboTV asked the U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Monday to dismiss its lawsuit against Venu Sports after it accused the companies in February last year of engaging in anti-competitive behavior that would thwart competition for sports fans.
The U.S. Justice Department and 16 U.S. states said in court filings last year that they support a court order won by FuboTV in August that temporarily blocked Walt Disney, Fox and Warner Bros Discovery from launching a competing sports streaming venture.
(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.