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The sports on Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) finally have a new dedicated streaming venue—or, in this case, Venu.
With help from creative partners at R/GA, the media giants announced the Venu Sports brand—the name of the companies’ combined upcoming sports streamer—during TV upfront week on Thursday.
The Venu moniker keeps the idea of a destination in mind. After all, every league has a stadium, arena, court, rink, racetrack, ring, octagon, pool, ballpark or other location where players go to work each day.
With Disney, Fox and WBD’s sports logos already heavy on brash colors (lots of primary reds and blues) and block lettering, the Venu Sports logo moves in another direction: embracing a navy blue that is one of the most familiar uniform colors in sports and an offsetting orange that should feel familiar to any Denver Broncos, Auburn, Illinois or Syracuse fans out there. The typeface has the tilt of a runner in stride and the curves of a road race.
“We are excited to officially introduce Venu Sports, a brand that we feel captures the spirit of an all-new streaming home where sports fans outside of the traditional pay TV ecosystem can experience an incredible collection of live sports, all in one place,” Venu Sports CEO Pete Distad said in a statement unveiling the brand.
Initially announced in February, Venu Sports added former Apple exec Distad in March even as lawmakers began raising antitrust concerns about the service’s impact. But with live sports drawing larger audiences and increasing fragmentation of the sports broadcast landscape concerning ad buyers, especially during NewFronts and upfronts, media companies see the value of placing more sports properties under a single umbrella.
As proposed, Venu Sports would combine the portfolios of ESPN, Fox and WBD sports networks, as well as ESPN+—which encompasses content from all major professional sports leagues and college sports. Venu Sports is tentatively scheduled to launch in the fall of 2024 and launched its website as part of the branding announcement.
Disney’s ad sales chief Rita Ferro recently opened up about the upcoming service to ADWEEK, saying, “The new sports streamer—it’s not a sports streamer. It’s a digital MVPD. It is a way for people who have not had the desire or opportunity to be part of the MVPD ecosystem to have a way to get the sports and the content that they most value.”