Sports streaming platform FuboTV is suing Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery over their recently announced three way partnership, citing what the corporate calls “extreme suppression of competition within the U.S. sports-focused streaming market,” in line with a duplicate of the lawsuit obtained by CNBC.
The three way partnership, announced earlier this month, goals to supply viewers a recent approach to access marquee live sports. It’s slated to roll out this fall, but several questions remain around its pricing and structure.
“These horizontal competitors are colluding to create a JV that may cause substantial harm to competition and consumers,” the grievance says.
The lawsuit also names Disney-owned ESPN and Hulu as defendants.
“Each of those firms has consistently engaged in anticompetitive practices that aim to monopolize the market, stifle any type of competition, create higher pricing for subscribers and cheat consumers from deserved alternative,” FuboTV CEO David Gandler said in an announcement. “By joining together to exclusively reserve the rights to distribute a specialized live sports package, we consider these corporations are erecting insurmountable barriers that may effectively block any recent competitors from entering the market.”
A spokesperson for the three way partnership declined to comment.
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Fubo argues that Disney, Fox and Warner Bros., which control a significant slice of live sports content within the U.S., imposed bundling requirements and “significantly above-market licensing fees” on Fubo, inflating prices for consumers.
Now, their recent three way partnership allows the media firms to undercut those prices and avoid the identical restrictions on which channels they need to carry, granting them a competitive edge, the lawsuit alleges.
As recently as last week, the three way partnership was raising eyebrows in the normal pay-TV market, with leaders of major distributors privately voicing concerns that the brand new skinny bundle would drive up cable TV cancellations, CNBC’s Alex Sherman reported.
Craig Moffett, an analyst at MoffettNathanson, said on the time that antitrust challenges were likely.
