From CNBC:

Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox have announced a new joint venture to offer live sports streaming this year. Pay TV distributors, such as Comcast, Charter, and DirecTV, are concerned about how this new service will affect traditional cable bundles.

The main concern is whether they’ll be allowed to offer the same skinny bundle of linear networks that the joint venture will offer, including ABC, ESPN, and other sports channels.

In 2023, Charter began offering a cable package without sports, which is good for distributors but harmful to sports programmers who benefit from households that pay for sports but don’t watch them.

Most favored nations deals with programmers would guarantee that pay-TV distributors have the same retail terms, but if the joint venture refuses, distributors could refuse to carry their networks, or even sue the joint venture.

Leaders at Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox have started to hear complaints from distributors concerned about potential cable TV cancellations due to the new skinny bundle, but details of the joint venture are limited.

While some companies might benefit indirectly from the new sports joint venture, others, such as DirecTV and Dish, could lose subscribers. But limited information has been disclosed and no joint venture leader has been named yet, although Pete Distad is reportedly the front-runner.

Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.



Read more: Pay TV distributors are confused, concerned about sports joint venture