Venu Sports Antitrust Trial Set for October 2025

Fubo’s legal fight with Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney over antitrust concerns surrounding the trio’s plans to launch Venu Sports is headed to trial in October 2025.

U.S. District Court Judge Margaret Garnett, who granted Fubo a preliminary injunction last month that temporarily blocks Venu from launching, issued a new order on Thursday setting Oct. 6, 2025, as the trial date, as well as deadlines for motions for dismissal and the discovery process.

“Counsel are free to negotiate interim deadlines among themselves without the involvement of the court, although the Court’s assistance is available if needed,” Garnett wrote. “Other than dates for submissions to the Court, and dates for the close of fact discovery and the close of expert discovery, counsel may agree to alterations of other listed dates below without the Court’s approval.”

The judge noted that the dates and deadlines would “not be extended absent compelling circumstances” and that the trial start date should be “treated as firm.”

“Based on representations of counsel as of the date of this order and the Court’s own assessment of the time needed, the Court anticipates that a trial in this matter will last 3-4 weeks,” she added.

The schedule is as follows:

• Sept. 16: Defendant Fox’s motion to transfer due
• Sept. 19: Parties serve initial disclosures and written discovery requests
• Sept. 26: Defendants’ motion to dismiss due
• Oct. 7: Fubo’s opposition to Fox motion to transfer due
• Oct. 17: Fox’s reply on transfer motion due
• Nov. 13: Defendants’ replies on motions to dismiss due
• Dec. 20: Deadline for substantial completion of production of documents in response to initial requests for production
• March 14, 2025: Close of fact discovery
• March 21, 2025: Joint status letter to the court (including confirmation that all counsel have met and conferred regarding settlement) due
• April 4, 2025: Fubo serves opening expert reports
• May 2, 2025: Defendants serve rebuttal expert reports
• May 23, 2025: Fubo serves expert reply reports
• June 13, 2025: Close of expert discovery
• July 3, 2025: All pre-trial/post-discovery motions due
• July 31, 2025: Oppositions to pre-trial motions due
• Aug. 21, 2025: Replies on pre-trial motions due
• Sept. 19, 2025: Parties jointly file pretrial order, proposed jury instructions, verdict forms, voir dire questions
• Oct. 1, 2025: Final pre-trial conference
• Oct. 6, 2025: Trial begins

Fubo has accused the studios of engaging in a years-long campaign of anticompetitive practices to block its business, with Venu Sports being the latest example. The lawsuit also slammed the trio for forcing Fubo to carry dozens of expensive non-sports channels that its customers don’t want as a condition of licensing sports content.

Following the suit, lawmakers including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Jerry Nadler and Joaquin Castro issued several letters expressing concerns about Venu, asking for more information on how the bundle could impact access, competition and choice in the sports streaming market while urging the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission to investigate.

Disney, Fox and WBD have appealed the Aug. 16 ruling, which blocks Venu Sports from launching this fall.

“We believe that Fubo’s arguments are wrong on the facts and the law, and that Fubo has failed to prove it is legally entitled to a preliminary injunction,” the companies said in a joint statement last month. “Venu Sports is a pro-competitive option that aims to enhance consumer choice by reaching a segment of viewers who currently are not served by existing subscription options.”

Fubo co-founder and CEO David Gandler called the ruling a victory for not only the company, but for consumers.

“This decision will help ensure that consumers have access to a more competitive marketplace with multiple sports streaming options,” he wrote. “A fair and competitive marketplace is necessary to provide consumers with multiple robust and more affordable sports streaming options. We will continue to fight for fairness and for what’s best for consumers.”

In addition to the legal battle with Fubo, Venu has been at the heart of an ongoing carriage dispute between DirecTV and Disney, with the former pushing the latter to collaborate on skinnier, genre-based programming packages for its more than 11 million subscribers.

DirecTV filed a complaint with the FCC, alleging that Disney has been negotiating in bad faith — in violation of the agency’s good faith mandates.

“The negotiations have stalled because Disney insists on bundling and penetration requirements that a federal district court judge in New York recently found in the context of the ‘Venu’ joint venture to be unlawful, anticompetitive and ‘bad for consumers,'” DirecTV argued. “Disney wants to force DirecTV to carry a ‘fat bundle’ including less desirable Disney programming — while itself offering cheaper, ‘skinnier’ bundles of programming that consumers want. The Commission has never considered a good faith complaint in these circumstances, and DirecTV may well wish to bring one in the future concerning Disney’s conduct.”

In response to the complaint, Disney said it continues to negotiate with DirecTV to restore access to its content as quickly as possible, and urged DirecTV to “stop creating diversions and instead prioritize their customers by finalizing a deal that would allow their subscribers to watch our strong upcoming lineup of sports, news and entertainment programming.”

The satellite TV provider, which supports Fubo’s legal fight against Venu, told TheWrap following Garnett’s ruling that it “appropriately recognizes the potential harms of allowing major programmers to license their content to an affiliated distributor on more favorable terms than they license their content to third parties.”

Venu Sports, which is targeted at sports fans outside of the traditional TV bundle, is slated to launch at $42.99 per month, offering subscribers thousands of live sports from all the major leagues and top college conferences, with access to ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, FOX, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS and truTV, as well as ESPN+.

Content would include live game and event coverage of the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, WNBA, NCAA Division I football and basketball, U.S. and international soccer, combat sports, Grand Slam tennis, championship golf, INDYCAR, NASCAR, F1 auto racing and more. Subscribers would also have the option to bundle Venu with Disney+, Hulu or Max.

Fox, Disney and WBD were set to each own a 1/3 stake, have equal board representation and license their sports content to the joint venture on a non-exclusive basis. Rather than split revenue equally from the partnership, the companies said they would earn a similar carriage fee rate as they do through other distribution channels where their networks are available. The trio’s members would also each be responsible for selling their own advertising and would retain all of the advertising revenue from their content, an individual close to the venture previously told TheWrap.

The companies expected to attract 1 million subscribers by the end of the calendar year and 5 million within five years of launching and said they would continue to bid independently and compete with each other and elsewhere for sports rights.

Fubo shares, which climbed 4% during Thursday’s trading session, fell 1.67% in after-hours trading and are down 82.9% in the past five years.

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