Paramount CEO Speaks About the New Disney-Fox-Warner Bros. Sports Streaming Service
The Walt Disney Company’s Q1 earnings report not only saw the company deliver strong results, but it also led to a slew of new announcements.
While the revelation that Moana 2 will hit theaters this year and Taylor Swift is coming to Disney+ grabbed all the headlines, the announcement with the biggest ramifications has been that Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery are joining together to create a new “sports-centric” streaming service.
Disney/Fox/Comcast/Ringer illustration
The new joint venture has already raised the ire of Fubo, who is suing the three companies over anti-trust concerns.
Paramount’s Bob Bakish
Now, Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish is attacking the new streaming venture. In his first public comments on the new streamer, Bakish was quick to point out that there will be large programming gaps in the new service.
Photo: Deadline
“There’s still a lot we don’t know about this service, things like price, packaging, consumer appetite,” he said on Paramount’s fourth-quarter earnings call. “To the consumer point, for the true sports fan, this product only has a subset of sports. It’s missing half the NFL, a lot of college, has virtually no soccer or golf, etc. It’s hard to believe that’s ideal, especially at the price points that have been speculated.”
Paramount, of course, holds the rights to a ton of soccer, football, college, NFL, and gold events. If the new venture partners wanted a more complete package, they could have included Paramount. In the end, however, they did not.
Roadblocks to Clear
While the new sports-centric streaming service was clearly created to compete with YouTube TV and Fubo, giving viewers an alternative to cable when watching their favorite sports, it will likely have large ramifications for sports streaming rights negotiations.
Photo: Deadline
With the three major players in sports broadcasting now aligned, there are fears that the new venture will be able to dictate costs and keep competition away.
As Fubo’s lawsuit shows, the new joint venture is going to have to quell antitrust concerns before it launches.
