Venu Sports is dead. Long live Venu Sports—sort of.

The high-profile but embattled streaming service threw in the towel Friday, formally discontinuing after never going live. The spirit of Venu Sports, however, as well as a meaningful portion of its planned content, will live on in a sports-centric skinny bundle contemplated by Fubo Inc. in its new joint venture with ESPN parent company Disney. 

The large-scale deal announced last week—in which Disney will acquire a majority stake in the rival streamer and Fubo operations will be combined with those of Hulu + Live TV—included a new carriage agreement for numerous ESPN networks and “allow Fubo to create a new sports & broadcast service.”

That forthcoming bundle may very well be aided by Fox Sports content, too. Last week, Fubo said it reached an amended distribution agreement with Fox, suggesting programming from that network could also be involved.

There are still plenty of details to work out, and it’s also not yet known whether this planned skinny sports bundle will have a price similar to the $42.99 per month contemplated for Venu Sports. The essence of what was envisioned before with Venu Sports, though, will likely still reach the public—just in a different way. 

“We’ve been very focused over the last three weeks on amending our [carriage] agreements to allow us to create these skinnier bundles,” said Fubo cofounder and CEO David Gandler after reaching the Disney pact. “We still have other programming deals, and we have to work through those as well.”

Warner Bros. Discovery, the other partner of Venu Sports, currently does not have a carriage agreement with Fubo. It does, however, have one with Hulu + Live TV. It will bear close watching whether the combined entity and the greater marketplace scale it now creates with more than 6.2 million total subscribers, results in an altered deal there. 

A Cleaner Market

The demise of Venu undoubtedly provides a simpler marketplace presence for Disney and ESPN, which already have ESPN+, this new alliance with Fubo, and the forthcoming direct-to-consumer “Flagship” version of ESPN that Disney CEO Bob Iger has called “the best product the consumer has ever seen in sports.” That latter project is unquestionably the primary streaming priority for ESPN. 

The recent developments are also perhaps a big win for Fox, which has had a less pronounced streaming strategy than many other major media entities and could benefit greatly from this retooled strategy led by Fubo. 

“No other company stands the most to gain from the testing of the Venu-thesis that there is an appetite out there for skinnier bundles, especially with a sports/news focus, that achieves meaningful price differentiation by dropping longer-tail networks, as compared to a full-fledged [virtual multichannel video programming distributor] offering like YouTube TV,” wrote MoffettNathanson senior analyst Robert Fishman in a research note.

WNBA free agency officially opened Saturday with teams allowed to make qualifying offers or hand out “core” player designations—one-year, maximum contracts similar to the NFL’s franchise tag. This period runs until Jan. 20. Teams can begin negotiating with free agents Jan. 21, though players can officially sign deals starting Feb. 1.

The biggest names expected to be on the move this offseason are Las Vegas Aces guard Kelsey Plum and Dallas Wings forward Satou Sabally. Plum was given the core designation—worth nearly $250,000—on Saturday, while according to ESPN’s Alexa Philippou, Sabally is expected to receive the same tag Monday.

These designations do not mean the teams plan to keep the All-Stars. They still could be dealt elsewhere, but their former teams can recoup some assets.

“I’m working with [the Wings] and finding a next home for me,” Sabally told reporters Thursday during a media availability for Unrivaled, the new 3-on-3 women’s basketball league launching Friday. “I’ve already played my last game in Dallas.”

Calm Before the Storm

The top free-agent names according to ESPN’s list are two-time MVP and Unrivaled cofounder Breanna Stewart and 2016 MVP Nneka Ogwumike. Both are expected to return to the New York Liberty and Seattle Storm, respectively. However, Stewart will likely be given the core designation, while Ogwumike, who is no longer eligible for the designation, may also receive a one-year deal for max money.

Most players, particularly those who aren’t fighting for roster spots, are maneuvering to be free agents next season. The Women’s National Basketball Players Association opted out of the league’s collective bargaining agreement in October, and a new deal should take effect by next offseason when the league’s historic $2.2 billion media-rights deal kicks in that could trigger exponential increases to player salaries. However, there is no assurance that players under contract beyond 2026 will receive salary increases equivalent to whatever cap spike comes next offseason.

“I am under a one-year, and I’m going to sign another one-year,” Stewart said in October, noting the new TV deal offers a lot of uncertainty. 

Stewart’s All-Star teammates Jonquel Jones and Sabrina Ionescu will also be unrestricted free agents in 2026. So will three-time Finals MVP A’ja Wilson. As for viewership magnet Caitlin Clark, she is entering just the second year of a four-year rookie deal, so the CBA will have to factor in existing contracts for her to see a noticeable bump in 2026.