- By Mariko Oi
- Business Correspondent
image source, Good pictures
Kansas City Chiefs players Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce
Three US media giants have announced new sports streaming platforms to launch in the fall.
Walt Disney's ESPN, Fox Corp. and Warner Bros. Discovery own broad portfolios of sports rights, including the FIFA World Cup, Formula 1 and the National Football League.
They hope to capture a younger audience and save on costs.
The service will have a „new brand with an independent management team” and will be available through a new app.
Its price will be announced later Their statement.
Each company will own one-third of the joint venture and have equal board representation, the companies said.
The announcement comes as sports leagues charge higher fees for broadcasting rights.
Instead of linear TV operators, fees are increasingly split between multiple media distributors.
The product will bring together the sports linear networks and Disney's direct-to-consumer ESPN+, according to their statement.
They added that the new joint venture aims to „serve sports fans, especially those outside the traditional pay TV set”.
Subscribers will also have the ability to bundle production with the company's streaming platforms Disney+, Hulu and Max.
Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger said the release was „a huge win for sports fans and an important step forward for the media business.”
Lachlan Murdoch, chairman of Fox, said the service would create „an array of exciting sports content in one place”, while David Zaslau, CEO of Warner Bros Discovery, said it „highlights our ability as an industry to drive and deliver innovation”. The more willing, indulgent consumer”.
Streaming services have grown in popularity in recent years, and traditional media companies have had to invest quickly to compete with the likes of Netflix, Amazon Video, and Apple TV.
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