New Sports Streaming Venture Expects 5 Million Subscribers In 5 Years

The new sports streaming venture from Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery expects to have around five million subscribers in the first five years, according to Fox’s Lachlan Murdoch.

Murdoch made the comments at the 2024 Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference this week, explaining “internal expectations” are that “within five years, we will have five million subscribers.” Ultimately, Murdoch anticipates that the streaming service’s total market size could be as high as 50-60 million U.S. households.

In response to suggestions that the number of subscribers could be much higher in those early years, Murdoch played down the idea. “Some of the talk around this being a, you know, in the teens or 20 million subscribers, we don’t think that’s the case,” Murdoch said.

The three companies involved in the joint venture first announced their intention to launch a new combined streaming service last month. When exactly the service will launch still remains unclear, as does the price, but the sports portfolios of all three companies makes for an interesting sports streaming product.

So much so that some have raised concerns over the potential impact of a service like this on the wider market. Fubo, for example, has taken issue with the joint venture, and even recently filed a lawsuit in a bid to stop the sports service launching in its current form.

Previously, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav argued that the new sports-focused streaming service wouldn’t impact cord cutting in any meaningful way. The reason given is that the sports streaming service would be targeting a different sports demographic. Specifically those not currently signed up to a live TV plan and not planning to sign up to one.

This was a sentiment reiterated by Fox’s Murdoch, who also suggested the new service won’t be targeting the same customers that currently pay for a live TV package. Instead, it will be targeting cord-cutters and cord-nevers.

For the same reason, Murdoch didn’t appear to be overly concerned about the Fubo lawsuit or the possibility of the Department of Justice taking a closer look at the service. The new sports streaming service is “pro-consumer,” Murdoch said.