Sports streaming venture from Fox, Disney and Warner Bros. priced at $42.99 a month
Venu Sports, the sports streaming joint venture between Disney’s ESPN, Warner Bros.
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 7-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 NFL 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 wouldn’t 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 NBA’s 11-year, $77 billion package.
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