FuboTV has filed a lawsuit against ESPN/Disney, FOX and Warner Bros. Discovery, the companies behind a new sports-streaming platform scheduled to launch this fall, alleging that the companies have forced Fubo “to broadcast unwanted, expensive content.”
What’s Happening:
- As reported by The Wall Street Journal, the lawsuit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeks to block the joint venture between Disney, FOX and Warner Bros. Discovery.
- The suit also is asking for a jury trial and punitive damages.
- Fubo alleges that the other companies are using “their power over commercially critical sports content to force Fubo to broadcast unwanted, expensive content that prevents Fubo from offering the sports-centric package of channels that its customers want,” according to the suit.
- In the suit, Fubo also said it is being charged above-market prices, and said the creation of the sports streaming-service would increase the media companies’ incentives not to make their content available to Fubo and others.
- “For decades, Defendants have leveraged their iron grip on sports content to extract billions of dollars in supra-competitive profits from distributors and consumers,” the suit said. “Defendants earned many of these profits by ‘bundling’ their commercially critical sports content with other, less desirable content—forcing sports fans to purchase channels they did not want.”
- The new service is also expected to harm internet-TV bundles such as Fubo and YouTube TV, which cost less than cable TV but are expected to be pricier than this new service.
- Shares in the nine-year old streaming service have fallen about 20% since plans for the new sports-streaming service were announced earlier this month.
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