Fubo severed ties with Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday after negotiations to renew their partnership failed.
The sports streaming platform cited the “massive abuse of market power” and refusal to “engage in religious negotiations” through the media conglomerate led by David Zaslav as an explanation for the decision.
“Fubo will offer Warner Bros. Discovery market rates for its content and, despite Fubo’s efforts to negotiate with smart faith, Warner Bros. Discovery has not provided any contrary offer and has insisted on proceeding to offer us the higher rates. “market fees for its content,” the company said in a statement received via TheWrap.
“Fubo sees Warner Bros. Discovery’s refusal to engage in good-faith negotiations as another example of its massive abuse of force in the marketplace that ultimately limits customer options. Fubo’s project is to always offer a leading set of premium sports. , news, and entertainment content while offering prices and keeping them as low as imaginable for customers.
The sports broadcaster and WBD are in negotiations to renew their content agreement with WBD Discovery, HGTV, Food Network and TLC, in addition to securing licensing rights for TNT, TBS and truTV.
“It’s clear to us that Warner Bros. Discovery hurts consumers’ pocketbooks and limits their choices,” Fubo said, concluding that WBD networks were removed from Fubo at 5 p. m. on Tuesday. And as a result.
“Warner Bros. Discovery has also denied our consumers the option to subscribe to their Turner sports content separately from Discovery content through a more affordable sports package. Still, Warner Bros. Discovery has announced plans to make this must-have content available as part of its upcoming sports streaming joint venture with The Walt Disney Company and FOX Corp,” he continued. “Warner Bros. Discovery’s refusal to offer Fubo popular market terms and packaging flexibility are further examples of the unfair and anti-competitive practices that this corporation and other vertically incorporated media corporations have imposed on Fubo for many years. These practices, described in our recent antitrust lawsuit against joint ventures, are designed to monopolize the market, stifle competition, create higher costs for subscribers, and deprive consumers of a well-deserved choice. Fubo is cracking down on these unfair situations in the marketplace to avoid passing those additional costs on to consumers. “
In a statement received via TheWrap, Warner Bros. Discovery said they were “ready and willing” to continue negotiations with Fubo “to achieve a fair market agreement. “
“Our priority is to deliver the most productive content, at the most productive value, to our fans, anywhere they need to see it,” WBD said. “We have been and remain in a position and are willing to work diligently with Fubo to achieve a fair market agreement. We’ve proposed an extension of our existing agreement, with no adjustments or value increases, that would allow Fubo to continue streaming those paintings online, and it’s unfortunate that Fubo has made the decision to alienate its own consumers on Around Here. “
Fubo ended its negotiations with WBD after an initial injunction hearing scheduled for Aug. 9 regarding its legal claims against Fox, Disney and WBD. The sports broadcaster filed an antitrust complaint in February, alleging that corporations “took advantage of their iron grip on sports. “content to extract billions of dollars in supra-competitive profits. “Later, DirecTV and Dish subsidized Fubo’s claims.