The US government's Justice Department (DOJ) is reportedly planning to investigate the joint-venture sports streaming service to be launched by US media giants Fox Corp, Disney, and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD).
The DOJ will work to ascertain whether the joint streaming platform, which is scheduled to launch in the latter part of 2024, breaches antitrust regulations, Bloomberg Law has reported.
The service, as yet unnamed, will combine the sports offerings of Fox’s Fox Sports channels, Disney’s ESPN set of channels, and WBD-owned TNT Sport, among other offerings.
Once active, the service will broadcast offerings from all of the US’ major properties, namely American football’s NFL, baseball’s MLB, basketball’s NBA and WNBA, ice hockey’s NHL, soccer’s MLS, and motor racing's NASCAR.
Golf’s PGA Tour, mixed martial arts promotion UFC, and soccer’s FIFA World Cup competition will all also be included, among other high-profile sports offerings.
The DOJ will analyze the deal when it has been finalized, Bloomberg has reported, citing two sources.
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By GlobalDataCollecting the rights of such a wide range of major sports properties – as listed above – could potentially harm fans, the leagues themselves, and rival broadcast organizations, the DOJ is reportedly considering.
The sports content shown will be licensed to the service by each of the three companies on a non-exclusive basis, allowing them to maintain their linear output streams.
The service is scheduled to launch in the northern hemisphere autumn of 2024, with each of the three joint-venture partners holding a third of the stake each, and having equal representation on the board.
It will all be contained on a new app built from the ground up, to which ESPN’s ESPN+ over-the-top service will also be included, and will have its independent management team.
A joint-venture streaming service covering all major US sports properties could strike a major blow to the traditional cable TV services in the US.
GlobalData’s ‘United States Pay-TV Forecast’ report found that total US pay-TV household penetration has fallen from over 85% in 2009-2010 to an expected level of around 32% in 2028.