It’s been a little while since Disney and Warner Bros. were invested in their now-dead Venu sports venture—which was at war with live TV streamer Fubo—and we had to keep all of these silly names at the front of our minds. We got a bit of a reminder today, as Fubo and Hulu + Live TV’s big merger, which the companies originally announced in January, officially closed. That means Disney, Hulu’s parent company, now owns 70% of its former live TV streaming rival. The newly combined businesses will be run by Fubo co-founder and current CEO David Gandler and traded together publicly under the Fubo name, but will continue to operate “separate and distinct services,” each offering multiple tier options “from skinny to robust at compelling price points,” as they shared in a statement, per Variety.
The announcement of the deal came as a surprise in January, as Fubo had previously sued Disney (along with Fox and Warner Bros.) over antitrust concerns related to Venu, the streamers’ proposed giant sports app. The companies reportedly agreed to pay Fubo a combined $220 million to settle the suit, with Disney providing an additional $145 million loan through 2026 as part of this new deal. That money will now, of course, benefit Disney as well. The companies said they expect to explore cost, revenue, and operational synergies through “more flexible programming packaging, advertising optimization and sales and marketing opportunities” now that they’ve been combined.
The amount of streamer crossover this deal entails is a little headache-inducing. Hulu + Live TV and Fubo now represent the second largest virtual pay-TV provider in the U.S., with nearly 6 million subscribers in North America. (The new venture trails only YouTube TV’s 10 million paying subscribers.) In addition to continuing to operate its own separate platform, Hulu + Live TV will also continue to be available as an extension in the Hulu app. That means it will also continue to be offered as a bundle with Disney+ and ESPN Unlimited. The new, combined company will now be able to offer more than 55,000 live sporting events and “entertainment-focused programming offerings,” meaning Disney basically got their mega sports app after all.
“We believe this combination delivers the scale, stability and strategic clarity to create lasting value for consumers and shareholders, and indelibly impact the future of live streaming,” Gandler said in his own statement. With these two behemoths coming together, it very well might.
