Fubo’s lawsuit against Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery’s planned sports streaming service may encounter challenges.
“Winning its case could be an uphill challenge for Fubo as the basic process the company is objecting to—network owners leveraging the popularity of some of their top networks to gain carriage for less popular networks during carriage negotiations—is how the industry has operated for decades,” Seth Shafer, a senior research analyst in the Kagan media research group within S&P Global Market Intelligence, told Adweek.
In the lawsuit, the live streaming service alleges that the trio of media giants stole from its playbook in a new attempt to thwart Fubo’s business.
Prior to the lawsuit, Fubo said the news of the streaming service was concerning and said it could harm competition.
“The underlying motives and implication of this joint venture also command our scrutiny. Every consumer in America should be concerned about the intent behind this joint venture and its impact on fair market competition,” Fubo said in an earlier statement.
Live sports content is in high demand these days and the competition between streaming platforms to provide it is heating up. While a popular service, Fubo and other streamers would be dwarfed by the powerful union of Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery.
“Fubo has leaned into sports programming to differentiate itself from other virtual multichannel services such as YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV, so it’s no huge surprise to see the company turn to legal action to try to block the proposed streaming sports bundle from Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery,” Shafer said.
Fubo isn’t the only one to take issue with the new service. NFL executives are having their lawyers comb their contracts with ESPN and Fox to potentially halt the endeavor. The Department of Justice could also present regulator roadblocks for the joint venture.
Earlier this month, Walt Disney’s ESPN, FOX, and Warner Bros. Discovery announced they were creating a streaming service that would bundle all three companies’ sports content. So far, the standalone app is set to launch in the fall. Details like pricing have yet to be revealed.
Fubo decline to comment beyond their original release.
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