Don't underestimate the fallout from what may seem like another legal drama, as Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery rush to appeal the injunction blocking the launch of their joint sports streamer Venu.
Antitrust Laws Explained in One Minute: The Sherman Antitrust Act, FTC Act, etc.
It initially seemed unlikely that plaintiff FuboTV would convince regulators to block the service, especially given the long history of pro-consolidation rulings in the U.S. entertainment industry. Any legal system that would allow the Disney-Fox merger would certainly never block Venu.
But Biden-appointed U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett, a sign of how much the justice system has changed under the current president, laid out a compelling case for Venu’s antitrust violations in her ruling granting the injunction.
The partner companies' exclusive deal for Venu to offer their networks outside the cable bundle "enables them to use the [joint venture] to 'capture demand' in the marketplace: demand that is the byproduct of their own historical (and ongoing) bundling practices," Judge Garnett wrote. "The JV is structured and incentivized to maximize the extent to which the JV Defendants capture that demand for themselves."
