Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge
Venu Sports seemed like such an obvious idea. Instead of spreading all your sports viewing across a million different platforms with a million different interfaces and subscriptions, what if you could watch everything in the same place? It makes perfect sense, until you get to the caveats. It’s not everything. It’s going to be expensive. Some will argue it’s anticompetitive. Maybe this isn’t a good idea after all.
On this episode of The Vergecast, after a brief update on the state of the TikTok ban, we explore the brief life and quiet death of the supposed future of sports streaming. Sportico’s Jacob Feldman joins the show to explain where Venu came from, why its parent companies — ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros.-Discovery — thought it was a good idea, and why Fubo immediately picked a fight over its existence. We also discuss the future of sports streaming now that Venu is gone, and whether ESPN, Amazon, or someone else stands to be the next worldwide leader.
After that, The Verge’s Kevin Nguyen joins the show for the first in our two-part New Year’s Resolution series. If you’re hoping to read more books this year, or just want to replace some of your aimless scrolling with more…
