FuboTV accuses Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. of antitrust practices over joint streaming service

FuboTV, a streaming platform dedicated to live sports, has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery Channel, accusing the companies of engaging in a “years-long campaign” to hinder its business. Disney-owned ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery announced that they will launch sports streaming services in the fall of 2024, allowing subscribers to watch sports events through the networks they own. FuboTV’s complaint alleges that the companies are stealing its playbook and that the joint venture will undermine competition and lead to higher prices for consumers.

Additionally, FuboTV claims that the defendants’ launch of the streaming service is just the “latest coordinated step” in their “campaign to eliminate competition in the sports-first streaming market” and block its business. The streaming service said the defendants charged it content licensing rates that were 30% to 50% higher than those charged by other publishers. They also allegedly forced FuboTV to bundle “dozens of expensive non-sports channels” that “customers didn’t want” with their sports programming as a condition of licensing their content. All of this increases the costs FuboTV must pass on to customers, the company explained.

FuboTV also claims that the companies are preventing it from offering the streaming products its subscribers want, including content available on Hulu. In addition, the defendants allegedly placed limits on the number of subscribers who could purchase its content packages to ensure that FuboTV could not gain a foothold in the market.

FuboTV CEO David Gandler said in a statement: “These companies have been engaging in anti-competitive behavior designed to monopolize the market, stifle any form of competition, create higher prices for subscribers and deceive consumers from the choices they deserve. “By joining forces to exclusively retain the rights to distribute dedicated live sports packages, we believe these companies are creating an insurmountable barrier that will effectively prevent any new competitors from entering the market. This strategy ensures that those who want to exclusively Consumers of the sports channel lineup were left with no choice but to subscribe to the defendants’ joint venture.”

Engadget has reached out to all three defendants: ESPN declined to comment, while Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery Channel have yet to get back to us. FuboTV asked the court to prohibit the formation of the joint venture or to impose restrictions on the defendants, such as economic parity in terms of the license.

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from Tech Empire Solutions https://techempiresolutions.blogspot.com/2024/02/fubotv-accuses-disney-fox-and-warner.html
via https://techempiresolutions.com/

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