Warner Bros. Discovery, The Walt Disney Co., and Fox Corp. have announced a new joint venture that will combine some properties and rights of all three companies into one new sports streaming service, The Hollywood Reporter reports. The company, whose name is yet to be announced, will combine channels like Fox, TNT, ABC, TBS, and ESPN, which will stream linearly on the new platform.
While the new venture will be its own company with the ownership being split among the three companies equally, it will be available as part of a bundle with Max, ESPN+, and Hulu. The venture will operate as its own brand with a management team independent of its 3 parent companies. The streaming service is set to launch this fall just in time for the NFL season.
While the final paperwork has yet to be signed, the principle agreement has already been worked out between the three companies, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The venture would provide the new streamer with rights to the NHL, MLB, NBA, NFL, college football, NCAA March Madness basketball, the FIFA World Cup, the UFC, three of the four Grand Slam tennis events, NASCAR, and Formula 1.
Bob Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, said this about the joint venture: “The launch of this new streaming sports service is a significant moment for Disney and ESPN, a major win for sports fans, and an important step forward for the media business. This means the full suite of ESPN channels will be available to consumers alongside the sports programming of other industry leaders as part of a differentiated sports-centric service. I’m grateful to Jimmy Pitaro and the team at ESPN, who are at the forefront of innovating on behalf of consumers to create new offerings with more choice and greater value.”