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Bryan Sullivan Weighs in on Venu Sports/Fubo Lawsuit for IndieWire and Business Insider
Bryan Sullivan recently spoke to IndieWire and Business Insider about Venu Sports – the new sports-centric streaming service collaboration between Fox, Disney, and Warner Bros. Discovery – announcing their unprecedented plans to have a “finite” expiration date nine years after launching. The preemptive expiration date appears to combat the allegations of antitrust violation from Fubo, Venu’s sports streaming service competitor.
But Bryan explains to IndieWire that a “finite” nine-year term is “not sufficient” to prove this, given that nothing would hold Venu to that timeframe, despite it being laid out in their current agreement.
“Arguing that it is finite is evidence that it does not have a catastrophic impact on competition in the market, but the counter argument is that it can be extended or renewed or renegotiated,” Bryan tells IndieWire. “Saying in a pleading that the contract is finite and pointing to that language about being finite in the agreement is true, but does not bind them from never amending, modifying, extending, or superseding that agreement with a new agreement.”
As the case developed further, Bryan also spoke to Business Insider about US District Judge Margaret Garnett’s recent ruling that Venu’s launch would cause “imminent irreparable harm” to Fubo, thus preventing it from launching in August as planned. Bryan explains to Business Insider that this decision may set the streaming service back several years.
“Fubo definitely has leverage after winning this,” Bryan tells Business Insider. “Any time that you win a preliminary injunction, you’ve stopped an operation of a business. So you do have leverage if the other side is willing to negotiate in any way,” he concludes.