Disney-owned Hulu Live TV announced a merger today with FuboTV, putting an end to a nasty lawsuit brought by the latter against the House of Mouse and uniting them against their common enemy: YouTube TV.
But dig deeper than the assumptions of what a merger means for you, a consumer. The news—while big for sports fans—means little to nothing if you don’t enjoy watching a good game of sporty ball. Here’s what the deal involves, and more importantly, what it doesn’t.
merged, but separate
With a combined 6.2 million subscribers in North America between Hulu Live TV and FuboTV, according to the joint press release they put out, their merged service should have a better chance of taking on YouTube TV’s 8 million subscribers.
Disney will become the owner of 70% of FuboTV and create a new Sports & Broadcasting service to operate under the FuboTV name, run by the current FuboTV management team. It’ll create a tier of streaming that includes Disney’s sports networks ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, and ESPN+, and viewers will ostensibly access it through the existing FuboTV app.
a new online venu(e)
This all started because Disney announced the Venu Sports streaming service for sports fans who reasonably decided that it’s loopy to pay the sky-high prices that watching live sports requires these days. It meant to pool together ESPN, Fox Sports, and TNT Sports at the sort-of-reasonable price of $43 per month.
FuboTV threw a yellow card and challenged the move in court, saying Disney would create an anti-competitive marketplace through its omnipresence. The merger smoothes over the rough feelings the way big corporations usually do: by cutting each other into the slice of revenue pie. Now the two services are the best of pals.
Hulu Live TV will continue to be available to watch through the existing Hulu app, and FuboTV will continue to be available to watch through the existing FuboTV app. They won’t be merging into a single, indistinguishable glob like two marshmallows in a s’more.
No word yet as to whether Venu Sports will live on as branding for the new FuboTV-directed unit or if that iteration is dead and gone forever, or how much the new service will cost. If it can stitch together the maddeningly fragmented network of national and regional channels to make it possible for a working class person to watch all their home team’s games, then they can call it whatever they want.
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