NBC executive gets honest about streaming service

At this point, Venu Sports was supposed to be celebrating the one-month anniversary of its launch date.

But after being blocked by a judge over antitrust claims, the future of the Disney/Fox/Warner Bros. Discovery joint streaming service remains in question.

Yet despite it remaining unclear when — or even if — Venu Sports will ever hit the market, it remains a hot topic of conversation in the sports media world. That included during the IMG-RedBird Summit in the United Kingdom on Thursday, where NBC Sports President of Acquisition & Partnerships Jon Miller took aim at the polarizing project.

“I think of it both as a broadcaster and a programmer, but also as a sports fan,” Miller said, per Deadline. “Why would you ever invest in a property that loses basically 45% of the NFL, has none of the golf major championships, loses half of motorsports in NASCAR, loses March Madness every other year and will lose half of the NBA opportunity because Amazon and NBC have two NBA packages?

“To me, it would be fool’s gold to invest in something like this when you can get all of that stuff by going through your cable subscription or buying a YouTube TV subscription. So, we weren’t invited, [but] we’re very happy with the hand that we have right now. We’re continually looking to grow, make partnerships and be in business with people who see the value in what we bring to the table.”

Paramount’s George Cheeks expressed a similar sentiment as Miller’s, stating at the same event: “We weren’t hurt by not being invited.”

While they obviously have reason to be biased, Miller and Cheeks’ criticism of the joint streaming service isn’t without merit.

While the idea of Disney, Fox and WBD combining their media rights — especially from a sports perspective — is certainly appealing, it’s less so when you consider the portions of the NFL and NBA schedule it would be missing. That would ultimately require subscribers to either forego watching the games not under the Disney, Fox or WBD umbrellas, or find alternatives such as subscribing to an additional service (or services), on top of the $42.99 monthly fee they’d already be paying for Venu.

But for all of the conversation about what Venu doesn’t have, the service did have enough for a federal judge to block its launch after Fubo filed an antitrust lawsuit shortly after the announcement of its formation. While a final ruling has yet to be issued, the injunction created a significant roadblock and has led to plenty of skepticism regarding whether Venu Sports will ever actually hit the market.

[ Deadline ]

The post NBC Sports exec calls Venu Sports ‘fool’s gold’ appeared first on Awful Announcing .