Fox Chief Lachlan Murdoch Gives Update on Sports Streaming Bundle: ‘Very Innovative’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Lachlan Murdoch, Fox’s chief, teased his company’s upcoming sports streaming venture with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery, revealing that he believes the final product will revolutionize the industry.
“It’s very innovative. It’s designed to be entirely focused on the cord-nevers, cord cutters, people who are not in the cable bundle. And frankly you won’t be able to compare it to a tier of live channels,” Murdoch told investors during an earnings call. “It is a very different, digital-first product. When you eventually get it and get to enjoy it, you will understand how ground-breaking, certainly in this country, it really is.”
“Everyone is running at full pace to get the product finished and delivered,” he continued. “Obviously there is the fun side of it, which is the user interface and how you use it. But there is a ton of work obviously in engineering behind that, in ingesting content from multiple partners and to be able to combine that to make a seamless product.”
The joint venture between Fox, Disney/ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery was announced earlier this year as an alternative route to live sports that circumvents traditional cable bundles. In March, former Apple and Hulu executive Pete Distad was appointed as the head of the service.
While this bundle has been touted as an absolute win for consumers, competitors to these three companies have argued that this venture violates antitrust laws and decimates the free market. Members of Congress are concerned that the platform will become anticompetitive.
Movieguide® reported:
Per Variety, “In a letter sent Tuesday (April 16) to the CEOs of the three companies, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D.-NY), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D.-Texas) requested answers about the competitive implications of the proposed sports streaming JV.”
However, the reps are concerned that the platform will raise prices.
“As programmers, your companies exert tremendous influence over pricing across the live sports TV ecosystem,” Nadler and Castro wrote in a letter. “Upstream, programmers negotiate content licensing deals with sports leagues like the National Football League and the National Basketball Association for the media rights to their sports events. Downstream, programmers determine the terms on which video distributors may license programmers’ sports channels.”
Streamer Fubo, in particular, has been extremely vocal about its opposition, quickly suing and calling for an FTC investigation after the venture was first announced, although nothing came of it.
More recently, Fubo argued that this upcoming bundle gave Warner Bros. Discovery unfair leverage when renegotiating licensing terms. Ultimately Fubo cut Discovery-owned channels from its platform, being unwilling to pay the studio’s asking price.
Movieguide® previously reported:
Fubo customers are losing access to Warner Bros. Discovery-owned channels after the two companies were unable to reach a new licensing agreement.
“Fubo offered Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD) market rates for its content and, despite Fubo’s efforts to negotiate in good faith, WBD did not provide any counteroffer, and insisted on continuing to offer us above-market rates for its content,” the company said in a statement. “Fubo views WBD’s refusal to engage in good faith negotiations as another example of its abuse of massive market power that ultimately limits consumer choice.”
The company viewed the action as anti-fair market, something it has sued WBD over in the past.
“WBD’s refusal to offer Fubo standard market terms and packaging flexibility are more examples of the unfair and anti-competitive practices it and other vertically integrated media companies have imposed on Fubo for many years,” the statement said.
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