Venu is Being Compare to Hulu. Seems More Like Quibi to Me.
Venu is Being Compare to Hulu. Seems More Like Quibi to Me.
Bernie Sanders doesn't need to worry about an anti-trust violation
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I’m trying something new - working on a survey on the state of YouTube media planning with the folks at Precise.TV - the results of which will inform a report I’m putting out in October. Would you mind taking this survey? Two lucky respondents will be flown to meet me at Tim Walz at the Minnesota state fair (lie).
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Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Rep. Julian Castro are urging the US Department of Justice to examine whether the soon-to-launch sports streaming offering Venu violates any anti-trust or telecommunications laws, according to The Athletic.
Bernie, Liz, Julian - I’m here to help you out - I don’t think you have anything to worry about. I’d focus your energies on breaking up Google, Meta, Pinterest, or whatever is bugging you. I think things are going to work themselves out.
Venu, as you may recall, is a planned joint streaming venture between Disney/ESPN, Fox and Warner Discovery. Since it was announced, one of the things I often wonder about is - do the people behind this service know any actual sports fans?
Sponsor——-
It’s not clear to me that they do. Like the infamous Quibi, Venu seems like an offering that nobody actually wants. Still, I’ll try to break down Venu’s potential target audience(s) if I can.
1)Let’s say you are a heavy TV viewing sports fan - like say a 50-year old male from New York. We’ll call him Trike Fields.
He signs up for Venu for $42 a month. Cheaper than cable! That means he can watch his favorite teams - sometimes. Like when the Yankees are occasionally on Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN. But not when they are on YES. Or Amazon. Or Apple TV.
Or when the Knicks are on TNT - maybe five to 10 times per year?
He’ll get the Giants games on Fox, which is great. But not when they are on CBS (which happens occasionally) or Sunday Night Football on NBC - unless he gets an antenna. He will will miss the Super Bowl in 2026, but he could go to a friend’s house.
Or, he could sign up for Amazon Prime ($139 a year) and Apple TV ($10 a month). And the YES app ($25 a month). Throw in MSG ($29.99 a month), and he’d be totally covered.
This seems complicated - but maybe it makes saves Trike a few bucks? However, let’s be real. I realize not everyone is like Trike. So let’s examine how Venu might works for other people.
2)Maybe you’re a pretty big sports fans - so much so that you’d consider subscribing to a sports-centric streaming service - but you don’t care that much about your local teams
These people exist, for sure, right? I get it, younger fans these days don’t care about teams, they just want to watch Steph Curry or Patrick Mahomes or whoever. And there are of course are watching every dime, so they’d never pay for cable. They are casual fans….but not so casual that they won’t pay $43 a month, right?
3)Maybe you’re from the South, and you mostly just care about College Football
Ok so this one could make sense - perhaps?! After all, ESPN already has a ton of college football, and Disney just nabbed the most important conference in the sport - the SEC. With Venu, you’ll get the college football playoffs, which will be on ESPN and TNT. However, you’ll miss CBS’s Big Ten package (which includes kinda big teams Michigan and Ohio State), as well as NBC’s Notre Dame games (admittedly, a loser school). I guess with an antenna, you can make this work? Reports suggest that Venu is aiming for 5 million subs - are there enough partial college football fans to hit that number?
3)Or, you’re a Gen Z or and Elder Millennial person. You’re scraping by financially, and just want to gamble
I’m not going to pretend I understand these folks’ sports fandom attitudes or psyches - but clearly they’re different than mine. Perhaps, a sports package built around tons of college football on ESPN, March Madness on Max and TNT, and NBA games on ABC will be plenty for them. Then again, these types of heavy action folks tend to be really obsessed with the NFL. Again, they won’t get CBS or NBC - which is a problem for NFL people. Unless you are into gambling with your life by putting an antenna on your roof.
4)Or, you’re a Gen Z or and Elder Millennial person with a short attention span. You like sports, as long as you can just watch highlights on Instagram or YouTube. Venu works for you because…I got nothing.
So you tell me who this is for? I wonder if I’m not young enough or broke enough (like I was in my 20s) or too traditional in my media thinking to get it. But $42 a month for a non-comprehensive sports bundle which will involve tons of tradeoffs and headaches, vs. YouTube TV which for $77 a month gives you CBS, ABC, FOX, ESPN, TNT, Golf, SEC Network, NFL Network (even Cheddar!) - well, the whole thing that feels a lot more like Qubi that Hulu to me. Instead, I’d bet on sports fans scrounging up the extra $30 a month for YouTube TV.
Or you could just be a sports psycho like Trike, and just get everything you want with cable (ok, and Amazon) and not have to think about it too much.
It’s up to you Bernie, Liz and Julian - but I wouldn’t stress.
Everything You Wanted to Know About YouTube
I’ve released over a dozen videos recorded at Cannes this year on the YouTube ad ecosystem with my partners at VuePlanner. The response so far has been terrific. If you missed any, they can all be found on my Next in Media YouTube channel here.
Or check out this handy highlight video: