Venu Sports scrapped by Fox, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery before it even gets a chance to launch

Venu Sports, the proposed sports streaming joint venture from Disney’s ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery, has been scrapped ahead of its anticipated launch, the companies said Friday.

Venu had been battling legal threats from rivals that put the venture into question in recent days. 

Earlier this week, Disney made a deal with FuboTV, which included the streaming TV provider quashing its lawsuit against Venu that had appeared to pave the way for its launch.

But new threats emerged from DirecTV and Dish in the last 24 hours, which played a role in the surprising decision to kill the service, according to sources close to the situation.

“After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture and not launch the streaming service,” the companies said in a joint statement.