Fubo is suing Fox, WB, and Disney to stop all-powerful sports streaming alliance

Curtains for Spulu? Fubo says Hulu, ESPN, Fox, and Max are violating antitrust laws

By Sam Barsanti  |  February 20, 2024 | 11:22pm
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Fubo is suing Fox, WB, and Disney to stop all-powerful sports streaming alliance
Sports Photo: Ezra Shaw

Well, when you work out a business deal as huge as the one where Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox all team up to share the streaming rights to professional sports through one super-subscription, you’re bound to ruffle a few feathers—at the same time, when three people are making all of the money, it stands to reason that someone will be mad that they’re not also making all of the money. However you want to slice it, that’s what’s happening here, and it’s hard to argue with the party that feels aggrieved when it’s staring down three Goliaths that are Voltron-ing to form one super-Goliath.

If the metaphors aren’t clear enough: Streaming TV provider Fubo has filed a lawsuit against Disney, Fox, and WBD in an attempt to block the trio’s recently announced deal to work together on a sports-focused streaming service that would unite all of the sports that normally air on ESPN, ABC, Fox, TNT, and TBS (including basketball, football, baseball, soccer, hockey, and racing) under one digital roof. The idea, as pitched earlier this month, would be that this new service would be offered as a standalone service or a bundle with Max, Hulu, or ESPN+, creating what would basically be cable TV but for streaming.

The reason Fubo is mad about this is that it tried to do this exact thing, creating a one-stop shop for all the sports you could ever want to stream, but in order to get the rights to stream the channels that do sports, it also had to agree to carry “dozens of pricey, non-sports channels.” In other words, it created cable TV but for streaming.

This comes from The Hollywood Reporter, which says Fubo has accused the three companies of using their “iron grip on sports content to extract billions of dollars in supra-competitive profits” while apparently charging Fubo much higher rates to license their networks. Because of this and other actions that allegedly violate antitrust laws, Fubo’s suit says it has had to raise prices and “incurred billions of dollars in damages as a result of the Defendants’ actions.”

THR says Fubo also released a statement saying that these three companies have “consistently engaged in anticompetitive practices that aim to monopolize the market, stifle any form of competition, create higher pricing for subscribers, and cheat consumers from deserved choice.” (These three companies? Allegedly hurting customers in the name of increasing profits? Perish the thought.)

To make matters worse, the unofficial name being tossed around on social media for this proposed Voltron Goliath of sports streaming rights is “Spulu,” which sucks. It sucks shit. It’s awful. If Fubo’s suit doesn’t move past this point and this alliance comes to pass, we really hope that name doesn’t catch on.

 
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