A detailed view of a broadcast camera with the NFL shield and ESPN Monday Night Football logo is seen during a game between the Chicago Bears and the Minnesota Vikings at Soldier Field in Chicago on December 20, 2021.
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Venu Sports, the sports streaming joint venture between From Disney ESPN, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox Corporation., will cost $42.99 per month.
The upcoming streaming platform announced its pricing on Thursday and said it plans to launch in the fall. It will offer a seven-day free trial. More details are expected to be released when it launches. Venu is still awaiting regulatory approval.
The goal is to have Venu Sports available before the start of the National Football League season, which begins Thursday, Sept. 5, according to a person familiar with the matter. Fox has the rights to Sunday NFL games, while ESPN is the broadcaster of Monday Night Football.
CNBC previously reported that the service would likely start at between $45 and $50 a month.
The high prices typical of direct-to-consumer sports streaming services were not expected to affect streaming deals with traditional pay-TV distributors. Live sports remain the most-watched television programming and are the most expensive part of the pay-TV package. At the same time, media rights valuations have skyrocketed, most recently the National Basketball Association’s $77 billion, 11-year package.
Users who sign up for Venu for $42.99 a month will have access to that entry-level price for 12 months, Venu said Thursday, noting that there could be price increases in the future.
“Aimed at sports fans outside the traditional pay-TV package, Venu is planning a U.S. launch in the fall and will offer thousands of live sporting events from all major professional sports leagues and major collegiate conferences,” the company said in Thursday's statement.
The three media companies, which announced the joint venture in February, each own a third of the shares in Venu, which is run as a standalone company with its own management team. Former Apple and Hulu executive Pete Distad was named CEO. The subsidiary announced the Venu name in May.
The platform will include the entire portfolio of live sports rights owned by its parent companies, including the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, college football and basketball, among others. Venu subscribers will also have access to 14 traditional sports television networks from its parent companies, including ESPN, ABC, Fox, TNT and TBS, as well as the ESPN+ streaming service.
“With an impressive portfolio of sports programming, Venu will offer sports fans in the U.S. a single destination to watch many of the most in-demand games and events,” Distad said in a press release. “We’re building Venu from the ground up for fans who want seamless access to watch the sports they love, and we’re launching it at an attractive price point that will appeal to fans who have canceled their cable subscriptions and those who have never purchased one and are currently off of existing pay-TV packages.”
Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery are also planning to bundle their streaming services, Max, Disney+ and Hulu. The upcoming bundle will be priced at $16.99 a month with ads and $29.99 a month without ads.
