New sports streamer Venu’s pricepoint may prove a tough sell

Venu, a sports streaming joint venture between Disney’s ESPN, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox, announced its pricepoint yesterday: $42.99/month (at least for the first 12 months).

For that, consumers get access to: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, FOX, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, truTV, and ESPN+.

And therein lies the potential issue. Venu is targeting the 60+ million US households without cable TV – many of whom are content with just watching highlights and commentary online after the games take place. According to a 2023 survey by Kantar, 54% of people would rather watch creators break down a major live event than actually watch the event.

Another thing not exactly in Venu’s favor – its sports coverage isn’t all encompassing.

Earlier this year, Citi analysts estimated the new service would encompass ~55% of US sports rights. Meaning consumers wanting to watch games in the other 45% will have to subscribe to other services to gain access – or sign up for cable TV (😱).

The competition: While Venu is priced lower than traditional cable packages ($100+/month) and YouTube TV ($73/month), it may not have gone far enough.

• For $60/month, Sling TV offers many of the same networks that come with Venu plus others that don’t, including NBC, CNN, Fox News, and Discovery NFL Network (46 networks vs. Venu’s 14).

👀 Looking ahead… Venu is aiming to launch this fall, before football starts. According to internal forecasts, it expects to have five million subscribers in five years.