Rep. Jerrold Nadler; Disney CEO Bob Iger
Patrick Semansky-Pool/Getty Images; Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times by way of Getty Images
The still-in-development sports activities streaming three way partnership is dealing with scrutiny from Congress.
In a letter despatched Tuesday, Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.) requested probing questions of the proposed enterprise.
The letter, addressed to Disney CEO Bob Iger, Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch and Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, asks for responses by April 30, and to “please copy the Department of Justice in your response.”
The still-unnamed sports activities three way partnership was announced in a shock transfer again in February, promising channels from ESPN, Fox, TBS and TNT in a thin multichannel providing, however missing channels from NBCUniversal and Paramount, amongst others.
The transfer caught its league and distribution companions off guard, with one companion, the Fubo TV, suing to dam the JV.
“The Joint Venture raises questions about how this new offering would affect access, competition, and choice in the sports streaming market,” the Congress members’ letter says. “Without more complete information about the pricing, intent, and organization of this new venture, we are concerned that this consolidation will result in higher prices for consumers and less fair licensing terms for upstream sports leagues and downstream video distributors.”
Among the questions raised by the representatives are ones round pricing, distribution and rights. The letter additionally raises some thorny questions round competitors, together with on points which have been introduced up by leagues involved that the JV might undercut their rights offers, and by cable and streaming MVPDs, offended that they’ll’t get related packages.
“The Joint Venture Partners currently bid against each other for sports content. However, the new venture will be pooling sports content among the Joint Venture Partners. Will the Joint Venture Partners continue to bid competitively against one another for sports rights as they become available?” the letter states.
The representatives add, “Will the Joint Venture Partners continue to require that MVPDs and virtual MVPDs purchase other programming in addition to their sports channels as a condition of their licensing agreements? Will the Joint Venture Partners continue to require penetration minimums for their sports and other channels when negotiating with MVPDs and other virtual MVPDs?”
The sports activities JV nonetheless doesn’t have a reputation, a worth or perhaps a definitive settlement among the many firms, a vital first step in launching any service. It does, nonetheless, have a CEO: Pete Distad, an Apple veteran who was hired last month.
The full letter from Reps. Nadler and Castro is under:
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