Fox Corp, Warner Bros Discovery and Walt Disney’s ESPN have announced that they will be launching a sports streaming platform later this autumn in a bid to capture the attention of viewers who are not tuned into television.
The three media giants will form a joint venture to create a new service from their broad portfolio of professional and collegiate sports rights, which span the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, Fifa World Cup and several college competitions.
“We believe the service will provide passionate fans outside of the traditional bundle an array of amazing sports content all in one place,” said Fox’s chief executive, Lachlan Murdoch.
The yet-to-be-named service will offer a spectacular all-in-one package of programming which would include television channels, such as ESPN, TNT and FS1, as well as sports content that is streamed. Subscribers would additionally have the option of subscribing to it as part of a streaming bundle from Disney+, Hulu or Max.
This means the full suite of ESPN channels will be available to consumers alongside the sports programming of other leaders,” the Disney CEO, Bob Iger, said in a statement.
This streaming platform would be made available to users via a new app, and would have a new brand and independent management team. The three companies will jointly own the new entity and will have equal board representation and agree to license their sports content on a non-exclusive basis.
“This new sports service exemplifies our ability as an industry to drive innovation and provide consumers with more choice, enjoyment and value,” the Warner Bros Discovery CEO, David Zaslav, said in a statement.
The announcement of this venture comes at a time when there is an increasing recognition of a large market for sports outside of traditional TV. By capitalizing on this opportunity, it gives media companies a way to monetize increasingly costly sports rights.
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