Fox, Disney, and Warner Bros. Discovery Expect Their New Sports-Centric Streaming Service to Gain 5 Million Subscribers in Five Years

Sports fans will soon have a streaming alternative to YouTube TV or Fubo when the new joint venture between Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery launches later this year.

While the price point for the new streamer has not been announced yet, CEO Lachlan Murdoch says that the joint venture is anticipating five million customers in its first five years.

Photo: People

According to Murdoch, Fox expects the sports streaming venture to be incremental to its existing linear television revenue base. In the end, consumers will simply have more choices.

Photo: Disney

“This a pro-consumer package,” Murdoch said, noting that historically, the TV industry has “made life for our audiences… incredibly hard,” he continued. “What this bundle does is put a majority of sports into one bundle. It’s an easy place for sports fans to come to.”

Reaching New Audiences

According to Murdoch, the new joint venture could reach a market of as many as 60 million U.S. households, reaching an audience that has rejected traditional linear TV.

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“That’s a huge market,” he said Monday. “That’s half of the television households in this country. And we know that sports is the No. 1 driver… [of] viewership and subscriptions.”

Murdoch Is Not “Overly Concerned” About Anti-Trust Regulations

The big question for the new streaming service, outside of its cost, will be anti-trust concerns.

Last week, Fubu filed a federal anti-trust suit against the three companies, alleging that they have colluded to create a non-competitive market. Additionally, according to Bloomberg, the Justice Department plans to review the new joint venture for potential consumer harms.

Photo: Deadline

Murdoch, however, said that the companies are not “overly concerned” about regulators.

We have obviously done a lot of work on this,” he said, before noting that the joint venture is a “virtual multichannel video programming distributor” akin to YouTube TV, Fubo, or Hulu + Live TV.

Photo: Fubo

If and when the new joint venture launches, sports fans will have a streaming service of their own, what this means for the rest of the streaming industry, including players like Fubo, remains to be seen.

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