Venu Sports, the streaming service jointly planned by The Walt Disney Company, Fox Corporation and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), will not see the light of day. According to a press release issued on January 10, the companies have decided to cancel the launch of the platform, which was exclusively designed for the US market.

The joint statement from Disney, Fox Corp and WBD reads as follows: “After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture and not launch the streaming service. In an ever-changing marketplace, we determined that it was best to meet the evolving demands of sports fans by focusing on existing products and distribution channels.” No further details were provided.

The main purpose of the Venu Sports project was to create a wide live sports offering by combining the broadcasting rights held by the three companies. Although its launch had been initially scheduled to take place in 2024, the project was put on hold on account of a lawsuit filed by streaming service Fubo on the grounds that the new platform was anticompetitive. On January 6, it was announced that an agreement had been reached under which Fubo would drop its legal action. However, when the path seemed to be clear for the launch of the OTT, Disney, Fox Corp. and WBD announced the cancellation of the project.

It is worth noting that between the announcement of the agreement on January 6 and the announcment of the cancellation on January 10, DirecTV and Dish sent a letter to a federal judge to complain about the dismissal of Fubo’s claim. The letter includes the following statement: “By this settlement, defendants pay off and seek to subsume the very competitor that raised these antitrust violations to the Court.”