SATS - Fox Corporation: Changes In Media Could Force Significant Losses
2024-05-31 15:40:54 ET
Summary
- The launch of Venu Sports was likely influenced by the recent clash between Charter Communications and Disney, highlighting the need for a backup distribution system in case of contract disputes.
- The cost of partners to help defray the cost of the service was the exclusion of non-sports channels; secondary for Disney and Warner, but a very serious problem for Fox.
- Fox News and the NFL contract each represent the entirety of Fox's profit, Fox needs both to go right to make any money. They're increasingly at odds with one another.
- It may become impossible going forward to protect both, since distribution for the NFL requires sacrificing News and vice versa.
- The end result of the various legal disputes pertaining to Venu may not be an injunction, but matching flexibility for most linear operators, turning a limited News exclusion into a flood.
Oh Spulu, we hardly knew ‘ye. With the official confirmation that the new sports streaming joint venture between Fox Corporation ( FOX ) and its partners Disney ( DIS ) and Warner Bros. ( WBD ) will, in fact, be called Venu Sports, the surprisingly endearing moniker coined by (I think she was first) Julie Alexander of Puck must now officially be retired.
Venu Sports is one of those things that is intricate to the point of tediousness to the broad-based investor, but actually fascinating to someone like me who has made a career of the economics of media. I could write multiple articles, a whole book even, just on Venu Sports and its implications for the future of media, both what it does and the broader forces it portends....
Fox Corporation: Changes In Media Could Force Significant Losses