For a brief moment last week Venu had new life.  But then Disney, Fox and WBD hammered the final nail in the coffin and buried it for good.

According to reports, the threat of continued litigation from DirecTV and Dish was too big a risk for Venu’s founding partners.  They feared that if the satellite companies prevailed in court, the traditional cable bundle which still delivers a ton of cash to legacy media would be in jeopardy. 

Disney, Fox and WBD did not want to be forced to allow MVPDs to offer “skinny” sports-specific bundles to consumers. Back in September when the court prevented the launch of Venu I wrote that Disney et al should forgo creating their own separate SVOD platform and do just that.  You can read it here.

I was a fan of the Venu concept from the beginning, despite all the naysayers and predictions of failure, because it was at least an attempt to make the sports viewing experience better.  Yes, I understand that the motivations of the partners were more self-serving than doing right by sports fans.  All the same, Venu would have been a welcome addition to the sports media landscape.

Let’s be honest, streaming has not been good for sports fans.  In the last ten years watching sports has become much more complicated and costly.  You need about a dozen different services to get access to the major sports, and even then it’s difficult to keep it all straight.

It’s easy to be cynical and look at the death of Venu as another sad reminder that making things better for fans is not a top priority for the powers that be in the sports media ecosystem.  Perhaps I’m being naïve, but I choose to see the entire episode as a sign of hope. 

If the major players were willing to join forces and take a step towards simplifying the viewing experience for fans, perhaps they will do so again.  Many are predicting that Fox Sports will be part of ESPN “Flagship” at launch.  That would be a good start, but more is needed.  Here’s hoping the industry places a higher priority on the fan viewing experience in the future, and the next big idea actually makes it out of the starting gate.