Venu, the coming streaming sports package that combines ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. programming, will cost subscribers $42.99 per month.
And that’s just to start. You know that price will climb rapidly over time.
The launch is expected sometime in the fall, AP reports:
Venu (pronounced “venue”) Sports is being considered by some to be the equivalent of Hulu for sports. It will include games from the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, WNBA, NASCAR and college sports, as well as golf, tennis and soccer. Besides games, there will be studio shows, pre- and post-game programming and access to ESPN’s 30 for 30 library, ESPN Films and documentaries from Fox Sports Films.
The report adds that Venu will also include “offerings from 14 linear networks — ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC Network, ACC Network, ESPNEWS, ABC, FOX, FS1, FS2, Big Ten Network, TNT, TBS, truTV — as well as ESPN+.”
If you want to give even more money to people who hate you, Venu subscribers can “bundle the product with Disney+, Hulu and/or Max.”
Those of you shocked by the cost should not be. Why do you think your cable and satellite TV (CSTV) bills are so high?
It’s because when you subscribe to CSTV you are always forced into a package that includes sports, which means that even if CSTV subscribers don’t want sports programming and never watch sports programming, they are still forced to pay for it.
For example, as of 2020, if ESPN is part of your CSTV package, whether you watch or not, it adds $7.64 a month to your cable bill. Add another $1.79 for the NFL Network, $1.12 for Fox Sports 1, and so on…
You see…
This is why the move to streaming is killing these entertainment companies. This is why most of their stock prices are plummeting. The death of CSTV is the death of all that free money. Although only 21.6 percent of households that have (and pay $7.64 per month for) ESPN watch ESPN, 100 percent pay for it. You multiply that $7.64 times the 76 million who once paid that amount every month for ESPN and that’s more than a half-billion dollars per month—82 percent of it coming from people who don’t watch ESPN.
CSTV is a socialist racket where everyone overpays the same amount regardless of which services you use.
What makes it especially socialist is the lack of merit. ESPN is not surviving based on the number of customers it attracts. ESPN instead flourishes based on a cable monopoly that forces people to choose between paying for ESPN or not having access to programming they want, like Fox News or Turner Classic Movies.
Once the CSTV model dies, unless they find a way to rig it again, outlets like ESPN, CNN, MTV, Comedy Central, etc., will have to survive on merit—and I doubt many of them will.
John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.
