Sportscaster’s plans to be everything to everyone are overwhelming

If you can’t beat ’em, buy ’em.

That appeared to be the strategy behind Disney taking majority control of Fubo, which had won an injunction to block Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox from launching sports streaming service Venu. The lawsuit is considered settled, and Disney plans to merge its Hulu + Live TV with Fubo.

And Venu might launch soon. Just what we need – another streamer.

Last February, the TV trio announced a service that would give sports fans tired of searching for their games a place to find them. Never mind that Paramount Global, which owns CBS, and NBCUniversal were not included.

Fubo, a live TV streaming service friendly to sports channels, sued because the companies planned to provide a package of sports channels that they would not allow Fubo to sell. The irony is that after Fubo accused the trio of violating antitrust laws by reducing competition, they ended up doing just that. All three make payments to Fubo, which will be able to create the “lean” bundle it sought.

It’s all part of the broadcasters’ plans to be everywhere everyone is. Sports have kept the cable bundle alive—at least on life support—and now they’re fueling streaming. Legacy businesses are seeing their linear viewership decline from cord-cutting and can’t be left behind.

This fall, Disney’s ESPN will launch its own direct-to-consumer service that will give subscribers access to all of its channels and more. That means ESPN will be available to stream through its own DTC service, Venu, Fubo, Hulu and other providers, all at different prices. Again, all places are all.

But sport is no longer the exclusive property of the old companies. Netflix showed two NFL games this Christmas and now airs WWE’s weekly “Raw.” Prime Video adds NBA to its sports stable. NBCU fills the Peacock with sports and makes many games exclusive, not simulcast on NBC or USA.

It’s enough to make viewers long for the good old days of cable, when everything was in one place. Venu is being promoted as a means to solve it, but it is incomplete. For example, Venu subscribers will be able to watch March Madness on TBS, TNT and truTV, but not on CBS. They will have to add Paramount+ to get every game in the NCAA tournament.

The fallout from the Fubo-Hulu merger is potentially good news for Chicago viewers. The Chicago Sports Network, the new home of the Blackhawks, Bulls and White Sox, is on Fubo, but not Hulu, which had stopped carrying most regional sports networks. Although the merger may take 12-18 months to complete, CHSN could expand its distribution with little effort.

At last count, Hulu + Live TV reportedly had 4.6 million subscribers to Fubo’s 1.6 million. Together, they would form the second largest vMVPD (virtual multichannel video programming distributor) behind YouTube TV, which had 8 million subscribers last February. And with nothing coming on the Comcast front, CHSN would take any subscriber boost it can get.

For years, cable subscribers demanded a la carte options. File all of this under the category “Be careful what you wish for.” What does a sports fan have to do with games spread across the broadcast spectrum, some behind another paywall? The answer is specific to your viewing and consumption habits. Unfortunately, it can prevent you from watching games you used to watch.

Sports viewing has never been more fragmented, and unlike Disney, fans can’t afford to buy them all.