Is Venu Sports worth it?

Last week, Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery put an official price tag on Venu Sports, the live TV streaming service they intend to launch this fall.

Venu Sports will cost $43 per month as an introductory promo rate—it’s unclear what the price will be after that—and is notable for excluding general entertainment and news channels that don’t carry live sports.

There are many ways to think about whether Venu Sports will be worth it at that price, but the one I keep coming back to is a hypothetical conversation between sports fans about what, exactly, the service has to offer. Please indulge me in imagining the following scenario:

---

Hey, are you going to sign up for Venu Sports?

Venu Sports? What’s that?

It’s a new streaming service from Disney, Fox, and Warner. They say it’ll bring “the most sought-after live sports from the top leagues and teams, together in one place.”

Oh, nice. Figuring out where to watch sports has gotten so annoying with all the different streaming services. How much does it cost?

It’s $43 per month to start, though presumably the price will increase over time like everything else.

So I just sign up for Venu Sports, and I’m all set for sports coverage?

Well, it depends what you want to watch.

I thought you said it has the most sought-after live sports.

That’s just marketing. Think of it this way: If a broadcast or cable channel is owned by Disney, Fox, or Warner, and that channel carries any amount of live sports, it’ll be included in Venu Sports.

I don’t really keep up with who owns what channel.

Fair enough. It’s ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, SEC Network, ACC Network, ABC, Fox, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, and truTV. It also includes ESPN+.

So can I watch the Bengals here in Cincinnati or not?

Unfortunately, no. Most Bengals day games are on the local CBS affiliate. You’d have to use an antenna–you’ll find the best-reviewed antennas at the preceding link–or sign up for Paramount+ to watch those games.

In theory if most of your local team’s day games were on a Fox station—like, say, the Giants if you were living in New York—you’d be in better shape.

Okay, no Bengals games. But I’ll get everything else, right?

Again, no. Monday Night Football is on ESPN, so that’s covered, but then there’s Sunday Night Football on NBC and Peacock, plus Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime, not to mention Netflix’s exclusive Christmas Day games and the occasional NFL Network exclusive. You’d have to sign up for those services separately.

It sounds like this isn’t a complete solution for NFL coverage. How about college football? Go Blue!

Ah, a fellow Michigan fan. Alas, the Big Ten has carved up its rights across NBC, CBS, and Fox, so you’re back to needing a combination of Venu Sports, Paramount+, and Peacock, or maybe just Venu and an antenna.

I’m detecting a pattern. What about basketball?

At least for this year, Venu Sports should be great for NBA coverage, with so many nationally-televised games on TNT, TBS, ESPN, ABC.

Bad news about 2025, though: Warner dropped the ball on negotiating a new NBA rights deal, so it looks like all that TNT and TBS coverage—and then some—will move over to NBC, Peacock, and Amazon Prime instead.

I mostly just watch the Cavaliers on Bally Sports anyway.

Oh, well, that’s not included in Venu Sports either. The Cavs games are on Bally Sports+ for $20 per month instead.

I’m almost afraid to ask now, but baseball? I just want to watch the Reds.

That’s a whole other mess, I’m afraid. Those Reds games are on Bally Sports Ohio, but they’re not included in Bally Sports+, so you can only watch through a much larger TV package that includes regular Bally Sports channels, such as Fubo or DirecTV Stream.

Eh, the Reds’ season is probably lost anyway. Can I at least watch the playoffs?

For the most part. But it looks like MLB Network will carry the National League Division Series as an exclusive, so you’ll need to pay for that separately.

I guess what I’m wondering is, why didn’t the folks behind Venu Sports come up with something more comprehensive?

It’s just not that ambitious of a service, at least not right now. Instead, it’s a repackaging of some traditional broadcast and cable channels, whose sports rights were agreed upon long before Venu Sports existed.

But aren’t more sports rights moving exclusively to streaming services like Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, and Netflix?

That’s … a good point.

So why does Venu Sports even exist? It’s not solving any of the big annoyances with sports streaming, and if anything it’s just another service for me to think about.

I mean, look, it can still save you some money under the right circumstances.

Think of it this way: The cheapest service that includes CBS, Fox, NBC, and ESPN—everything you need for NFL coverage most weeks, minus Amazon Prime—is YouTube TV at $73 per month. Venu Sports is cheaper by $30 per month. Even if you add Paramount+ and Peacock, which cost $8 per month each, you’re still ahead by $14 per month, and that’s not factoring in the various ways you can save on those individual services. Alternatively, you can try to pick up CBS and NBC with an antenna for even greater savings.

But if I subscribed to a bigger package like YouTube TV or Hulu + Live TV, I could get more of those channels in one app, with a DVR that works across every channel.

Sure, but that’s always been the trade-off: “The easier cord-cutting is, the less money it saves.” I read that somewhere once.

I’m not saying Venu Sports is for everyone, and it definitely doesn’t make sports streaming less of a headache, but at least it provides another option with less bloat than most other live TV packages.

Alright, I’ll keep it in mind, at least. So when can I sign up?

The target is this fall, but it’s complicated.

Fubo is suing the companies behind Venu because it wants to offer its own sports-focused packages—maybe even ones with CBS and NBC—but says it’s required to carry all the news and entertainment bloat that Venu has jettisoned from its lineup. Members of Congress want the Department of Justice to take a closer look at the situation, and Venu itself notes that its launch is “conditional on receiving regulatory approval.”

Now I’m confused. Do I want Venu Sports to exist or not?

We should all want more choice and flexibility in streaming TV, so having something like Venu Sports makes sense, though it’d be better if more services could offer their own pared-down, sports-centric lineups.

Makes sense. So is there, like, a newsletter or something where I can stay on top of all this?

As a matter of fact, there is! Here’s the link.