The Venu streaming service is starting soon.
In the “no one should be surprised by this development category”, lawmakers on Capitol Hill in Washington are urging Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice to take a rather close look at the upcoming launch of Venu Sports. Venu Sports, once it gets off the ground, is a sports streaming service that will be owned by Rupert Murdoch’s FOX Sports, the Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros. Discovery. The United States Department of Justice was planning to investigate the business to see if it was violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. Now Congress wants to add a little muscle and make sure that an investigation is conducted. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders as well as Congressmen Joaquin Castro and Jerry Nadler want some action and want it soon.
“This massive new sports streaming company would be poised to control more than 80% of nationally broadcast sports and more than half of all national sports content, putting it in a position to exercise monopoly power over televised sports,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to the Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission. With the number of subscribers of cable TV falling and with the advent of streaming options, FOX, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery decided to team up and start a sports stream service and it is going to be expensive for consumers although there will be an enormous amount of content as subscribers will get access to NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, WNBA, NCAA Division I football and basketball, U.S. and international soccer, combat sports, Grand Slam tennis, championship golf, INDYCAR, NASCAR and F1 auto racing games and events, from ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, FOX, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, truTV and ESPN+ for $42.99 per month at the start of the service. It is a brave new world delivering sports.
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Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com
