Former Apple executive Pete Distad has formally left Venu Sports and will join Fox Corporation to oversee the development of its forthcoming direct-to-consumer streaming offering.
Distad will report to Paul Cheesbrough, the CEO of Tubi Media Group, and will oversee the development, execution and marketing of the yet-to-be-named streaming product.
He left Apple to join Venu Sports, then a joint venture between Fox, Warner Bros Dicsovery (WBD) and the Walt Disney Company that intended to offer streaming access to sports-inclusive broadcast and cable networks from the three participants.
The service was effectively sued out of existence by Fubo, a cable-like streaming service, on the complaint that the distribution terms afforded to the Venu Sports joint venture were substantially different from carriage agreements forced by Disney, Fox and WBD on it and other pay TV platforms. The lawsuit was dropped earlier this year, after Fubo and Disney agreed to merge their pay TV businesses, a transaction that is still pending.
On paper, Venu Sports was incorporated as a subsidiary of Fox — so, the onboarding of Distad at Fox likely involves little more than some new paperwork.
Other employees working on the Venu Sports product are also moving over to develop Fox’s streaming service, sources told The Desk last month. The company will offer Fox News, Fox Business Network, Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2 and local Fox-owned broadcast stations through the service at launch, and will be priced around $20 per month, one source said.
The service will be the second direct-to-consumer offering from Fox. The company already operates Fox Nation, a premium subscription streamer that targets viewers of the Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network with general interest and lifestyle programming. Fox Nation has more than 2 million subscribers.
