Actor Jon Hamm plays Don Draper on “Mad Men.”
Michael Yarish | AMC | Associated Press
Call Don Draper, Venu Sports may have marketing issues
this disney, fox and Warner Bros. Discovery The joint venture streaming service said Thursday it will launch this fall $42.99 per month. This is better than Netflix, Max, Peacock, or any other major subscription streaming service. It’s much cheaper than the $73 per month YouTube TV or standard cable TV packages, but those offerings include a variety of entertainment content beyond sports.
Venu will give consumers access to a range of networks: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, Fox, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS and truTV. Subscribers will also get ESPN+. The program debuts before football season. It does not include CBS and NBC, which own broadcast rights to many sports, including college football and NFL games.
Venu’s theoretical users are a small subset of media — live sports, but not all live sports — willing to pay high monthly subscription fees. The service is positioning itself as a product for the so-called “cable nevers,” a group of younger consumers who don’t want to pay for cable because it’s too expensive but have longed to watch ESPN and other live sports.
It’s unclear whether this user base will materialize.
There are two major obstacles to Venu’s success. First, the total addressable market of users willing to pay $43 a month to watch some sports but not pay for cable TV may not be that high. Many non-cable subscribers very satisfied YouTube highlights and comments from their favorite influencers. According to a Kantar survey (cited by YouTube in its pre-2024 survey), 54% more willing to Watch creators break down major live events without actually watching the event.
On the other hand, young people who are keen on the NFL will have to buy Peacock and Paramount+ (streaming services owned by NBC and CBS) to watch full NFL games. They can also get a digital antenna paired with the Venu, but younger viewers may be a bit ambivalent about the antenna’s reception.
Other major sporting events – such as the ongoing Olympics – will not be shown on Venu at all because Olympic broadcasters Comcast NBCUniversal is not part of this service.
Existing players
The second problem may be bigger: A product like Venu already exists — and it may already be a better deal than Venu.
$60 per month, Sling TV by Echostar Offers the popular networks that come with Venu — ESPN, TNT, TBS, Fox, and ABC — but also NBC. Additionally, it’s available with CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Bravo, USA, HLN, Discovery NFL Network, and a host of other networks – 46 in total, compared to 14 for Venu. Introductory offer is just $30 for your first month.
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As of the end of March, Sling TV had 1.92 million subscribers and was not growing. It lost 135,000 customers in the first quarter, which was actually less than the 234,000 subscribers it lost in the first quarter a year ago.
Sling TV ended 2021 with 2.5 million customers, down from its peak of 2.7 million subscribers in 2019.
The company blamed last quarter’s decline on the presence of other streaming services.
“We continue to face increasing competition, including from other subscription video on demand and linear live OTT service providers, many of which are our content providers and provide football and other seasonal sports programming directly to subscribers on an a la carte basis,” “Echo Star said in a document.
All told, Sling TV – a more powerful product than Venu that costs about $17 more per month – has been losing subscribers for five years, never topping 2.7 million at its peak.
This is a considerable marketing challenge for Venu, which needs to convince consumers that the advantages of the brand and technology make it worth signing up.
Alternatively, it hopes the $43 per month offer lasts long enough to take advantage of the $17 increments. The typical pattern with live internet bundles is that they start with an introductory offer only to bump up the price. Venu hinted at this in its press release, telling consumers they can lock in the $43 per month price within 12 months of signing up, suggesting that a price increase may be coming.
Venu hopes to add more sports to the tee in time, but that may lead to a price increase, making the value proposition more difficult for people who have never roped.
Detailed view of the ESPN logo seen on broadcast television cameras at Q2 Arena in Austin, Texas.
Robin Alam | Graphic Sports Line | Getty Images
In order to further weaken Venu, Disney has planned to launch an ESPN flagship streaming service in the fall of 2025, which will include ESPN but at a lower price than Venu.
Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery Channel and Fox will argue that their goal is to achieve maximum coverage — sort of like how Apple’s iPad mini fits into the tech company’s existing lineup between phones and large tablets.. Maybe Venu has an audience, and if there is one, the company wants to serve them. Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch Already predicted The service will gain 5 million subscribers over the next five years.
But considering Sling TV’s plight, even 5 million seems ambitious. Achieving this requires spending a lot of money on marketing.
And this effort can be so costly that it defeats the purpose.
Revealed: CNBC parent company NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics holds U.S. broadcast rights to all summer and winter Olympics through 2032.
