The sports streaming joint venture of Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery announced the branding of the service on Thursday.
The platform that will combine sports programming from ESPN, Fox Sports and TNT will be called Venu Sports, as revealed by CEO Pete Distad, general director of the venture. (My condolences to those who may have become attached to “Spulu,” as the name some fans coined when this “Hulu for Sports” venture was announced.)
The joint service was originally announced in February and is scheduled to launch in the fall. (An antitrust lawsuit by FuboTV might affect that.) Venu Sports will include ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, Fox, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, truTV and ESPN+, offering viewers a variety of NFL, NBA, MLB , College and NHL sports content.
With those networks, Venu will offer coverage of the NFL and MLB on Fox and ESPN, and the NHL on TNT and ABC/ESPN. (The NFL was supposedly dissatisfied with the company when it was announced in February). Big Ten football games will be available on Fox, and ESPN has rights to SEC football. NBA games will also be offered on ESPN/ABC. But if TNT loses the NBA broadcast rights, as rumored, that could affect the value of the package.
Venu Sports did not include the price of the service in its advertisement. But it will also be available to ESPN+, Hulu and Max subscribers as part of a package. Overall, the platform should present the most competitive and least expensive package versus cable for viewers who largely want to pay for sports television.
However, without CBS and NBC, fans would not receive the NFL broadcasts offered by those networks, although games are increasingly being distributed between services such as Amazon and Netflix. Fans of the NCAA basketball tournament and Olympic Games coverage would also miss those sports on Venu.
“We are excited to officially introduce Venu Sports, a brand that we believe captures the spirit of an entirely new streaming home where sports fans outside the traditional pay TV ecosystem can experience an incredible collection of live sports, all in one only place. ” Distad said in a statement.
“As preparations for the platform continue to accelerate, we are singularly focused on delivering the best-in-class product for our target audience,” he added, “built from the ground up using the latest technologies to engage and entertain the biggest sports fans. demanding customers who want unique access to live games.”
You can find updates on upcoming news and information about Venu Sports at www.venu.com.