A detail view of a broadcast camera is seen with the NFL crest and ESPN Monday Night Football logo on it during a game between the Chicago Bears and the Minnesota Vikings at Soldier Field in Chicago on Dec. 20, 2021.
Icon Sportswire | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images
Venu Sports, the sports streaming joint venture between Disney’s ESPN, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox Corp., will cost $42.99 a month.
The upcoming streaming platform announced its pricing on Thursday and said it plans to launch in the fall. It will offer a seven-day free trial. Further details are expected to be released when it launches. Venu is still pending regulatory approval.
The goal is for Venu Sports to become available ahead of the start of the National Football League season, which begins on Thursday, Sept. 5, according to a person familiar with the matter. Fox holds the rights to Sunday NFL games, while ESPN is the broadcaster of Monday Night Football.
CNBC earlier reported the service would likely start at between $45 and $50 a month.
The high-end pricing — common in direct-to-consumer sports streaming services — was expected in part so it would not shake up any carriage agreements with traditional pay TV distributors. Live sports remain the highest-rated TV programming and are the most costly part of the pay TV bundle. In turn, media rights valuations have ballooned, most recently the National Basketball Association’s 11-year, $77 billion package.
Users who sign up for Venu at $42.99 a month will have access to that entry pricing for 12 months, Venu noted Thursday, signaling there could be price increases ahead.
“Targeted at sports fans outside the traditional pay TV bundle, Venu is planning a launch in the U.S. in the fall and will offer thousands of live sports events from all the major professional sports leagues and top college conferences,” the company said in Thursday’s release.
The three media companies, which announced the joint venture in February, each own a one-third stake in Venu, which is run as its own company with its own management team. Former Apple and Hulu executive Pete Distad was appointed CEO. The subsidiary announced the name Venu in May.
The platform will include the entirety of the portfolio of live sports rights owned by its parent companies, including the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, college football and basketball, among others. Venu subscribers will also have access to 14 traditional TV sports networks of its parent companies, including ESPN, ABC, Fox, TNT and TBS, as well as the streaming service ESPN+.
“With an impressive portfolio of sports programming, Venu will provide sports fans in the U.S. with a single destination for watching many of the most sought-after games and events,” Distad said in a news release. “We’re building Venu from the ground up for fans who want seamless access to watch the sports they love, and we will launch at a compelling price point that will appeal to the cord cutter and cord never fans currently not served by existing pay TV packages.”
Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery are also planning to bundle their streaming servicesMax, Disney+ and Hulu. The upcoming bundle will be priced at $16.99 a month with ads, and $29.99 a month ad-free.
