Venu Sports, the upcoming streaming service from Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery, now has a price: It'll launch at $43 per month, with those who sign up able to keep that price for the first 12 months. The service will also offer a seven-day free trial and allow you to cancel at any time.
There's still no exact launch date for the new service, with the only timing given so far as "fall 2024." It is worth noting that the press release announcing the news calls this a "launch price," which suggests that it may go up in the not-too-distant future.
First announced back in February, the new joint venture will pull in networks that air sports from all three companies. This includes Disney's ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNews, ESPN Plus and ABC; Fox's Fox, FS1, FS2 and BTN; and Warner Bros. Discovery's TNT, TBS and TruTV.
All together, these networks will have access to live games from all the major US sports leagues, a wide range of college sports as well as other events like racing (including "all NTT Indycar Series races, NASCAR's Daytona 500 and Championship Race, and all Formula 1 events"), tennis (including all four Grand Slam tournaments), fighting and golf (including some rounds of the Masters that ESPN broadcasts).
At $43 per month, this would be significantly cheaper than YouTube TV's $73 per month pricing and cheaper than many other streaming TV services like Fubo ($80 for its base package), Sling Orange Plus Blue ($60 per month), DirecTV ($85 per month for its base package once factoring in fees) and most cable options with similar channels.
That said, $43 isn't the full price for a sports fan. Venu lacks CBS and NBC, so you will need to use streaming services like Paramount Plus (CBS), Peacock (NBC) or an antenna to fill in the gaps there.
Even so, it could still be cheaper than YouTube TV, a streaming TV service or cable, if you're willing to bounce between apps. Paramount Plus' base Essential plan will run $8 per month starting later this month, a similar price that Peacock Premium is set to jump to in a couple of weeks. Both services offer annual plans that let you prepay for a year at a discount.
But taking everyone's monthly rate, that would be a combined $59 for streaming all the major networks and their respective sports as well as most of the NFL outside of the NFL Network, Prime Video and Netflix games -- and possibly RedZone, as it's unknown if the NFL's popular whip-around channel will be available on Venu.
For fans of local NBA, NHL or MLB teams, things get a little more complicated. Venu doesn't appear to have regional sports networks and has made no mention of an option to add them, which means fans looking to watch all of their local teams will likely need to shell out extra for that network's streaming service, with prices varying depending on the network, location and teams included.
Some Bally Sports RSNs run $20 per month, while ones for networks like MSG (which has the NBA's Knicks and NHL's Rangers, Islanders, Devils and Sabres in the New York area) cost $30 per month.
If you need those channels, looking at Fubo may be your best bet, as it includes many of the local RSNs and most of the major networks for $80 per month, though it lacks the Warner Bros. Discovery networks like TNT and TBS, so you will still need to get Max for those.