Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery's surprise partnership to create a sports streaming platform was not well received by TV streaming service Fubo. Today, Fubo filed an antitrust lawsuit against the three companies after the company waged “a years-long campaign to block Fubo's innovative sports-first streaming business” at the expense of consumers.
David Gandler, Fubo's CEO, said that the three companies “have blocked our game for many years, and now they are effectively stealing it for themselves.” Fubo has described itself as a “sports-focused” streaming service, but the company admits stated that restrictive licensing conditions imposed by sports broadcasters have limited its options. It argues that “unfair” bundling terms have resulted in the company paying for and distributing “expensive non-sports channels that Fubo's customers do not want as a condition of licensing for those sports channels.”
The Wall Street Journal noted today that Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery may charge around $50 a month for their new service – significantly cheaper than what you'd pay for sports programming from Fubo or YouTube TV. Fubo says this is intentional and accuses the trio of charging more than market price to license their content. The company is asking a judge to either block or restrict the company by requiring “economic equality of licensing conditions” and awarding it damages.
The sports streaming alliance makes business sense for Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery, as The Verge's Emma Roth wrote last week, but it's a risky time to do so given all the regulatory actions the U.S. government is taking has taken. The Justice Department is reportedly already reviewing the companies' plan to determine whether it will harm consumers if implemented, Bloomberg reported last week.