Cable programmers could end the lawsuit against their Venu sports streaming partnership if they allowed multichannel video programming distributors to offer more customized programming bundles, LightShed Partners blogged Friday. The source of the Venu suit is that third-party distributors aren't offered "Venu-like bundles," LightShed said. The big bundle's future "is grim at best," and now might be a good time to allow MVPDs to offer smaller bundles and reduce or end minimum penetration requirements, it added. That could slow the demise of linear TV, though it also would hasten the end of non-core non-sports networks like MTV, TLC and USA, LightShed said. DOJ and various states are backing fuboTV in its litigation against Venu and its defense of a preliminary injunction against Venu (see 2408160040). Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery -- the Venu partnership -- is challenging the injunction. In a docket 24-2210 amicus brief last week filed with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of fuboTV, 16 states and the District of Columbia said the "no duty to deal" doctrine -- under which businesses aren't liable for unlawful monopolization by refusing to do business with competitors -- doesn't shield those businesses from antitrust scrutiny of anticompetitive joint conduct. Signing the amicus brief were New York, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. DOJ, in an amicus brief, dismissed the programmers' argument that it's not anticompetitive to stop rivals from getting unbundled sports channels because there's no antitrust duty to deal with distributors. "That argument is a red herring," and the appeal is about creation of Venu as a violation of the Clayton Act, DOJ said. Asked whether the change in administrations and the Donald Trump DOJ might have a different stance, a fubo spokesperson emailed that "we believe our issue is bipartisan."

Comcast's plans for spinning off most of its cable networks (see 2410310013), along with Diamond Sports Group having just four more years of MLB TV rights and the NFL possibly ending its linear TV deals indicate linear TV is in "terminal decline," Macquarie's Tim Nollen noted last week. Nollen said an M&A-friendly government plus lower interest rates could see the Comcast spinoff becoming part of a larger cable network business using its scale to cut costs and negotiate better carriage terms. He said regional sports network Diamond emerges from its Chapter 11 reorganization with rights to at least six MLB teams until 2028 -- the same year national MLB contracts with ESPN, Fox and Turner networks end. He said MLB would like to get rid of RSNs and distribute games at a national rather than a regional level, and companies with strong direct-to-consumer platforms for national distribution, as well as deep pockets, will have the advantage. Nollen said the amounts streamers like Netflix and Comcast's Peacock are bidding for limited NFL rights raise the likelihood the league will exercise its opt-out clause in the 11-year rights deal it signed in 2021 with CBS, Fox, ESPN and NBC.

Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., and National Action Network (NAN) President Reverend Al Sharpton are criticizing Paramount Global for using video measurement data from VideoAmp rather than Nielsen. In letters last week to co-CEOs George Cheeks and Chris McCarthy, Torres said VideoAmp's data, which doesn't break out race and ethnicity, "disenfranchises audiences that have long suffered from a lack of representation on television, and are still too easily overlooked by advertisers." He said the move "continues an alarming trend that has seen Paramount disinvest and de-prioritize inclusive programming," and pointed to a lack of inclusive streaming series on Paramount+. Sharpton said in his letter to Cheeks, McCarthy and the third co-CEO, Brian Robbins, "Ensuring that minority viewers are accurately counted has long been an important priority for me and NAN." Sharpton pressed Paramount "to convene a meeting with racially diverse content creators, brands, and marketers to explore and rectify the impact on our communities." The company didn't comment Friday.

Warner Bros. Discovery and the NBA crafted an agreement that gives WBD's TNT Sports a global license to create and distribute NBA content, WBD said Monday. The 11-year deal ends WBD's lawsuit alleging the NBA is violating the company's contractual right to match any third-party offer for future NBA telecast carriage (see 2407310028). WBD said that as part of the agreement, it has NBA telecast rights in a variety of European nations, Brazil and Mexico for 11 years. Concurrent with the NBA agreement, WBD and ESPN have inked a partnership that will see TNT Sports continue creating and producing its Inside the NBA show, which will be distributed on ESPN and ABC. TNT Sports also will televise a slate of Big 12 football and men's college basketball games starting with the 2025 season.

Changes to applications concerning the $8 billion Paramount Global/Skydance Media deal constitute major amendments that warrant a further pleading cycle, the FCC Media Bureau said Friday in docket 24-275. Revised petitions to deny are due Dec. 16, with revised oppositions to petitions due Jan. 2 and revised replies Jan. 13. The bureau said changes to the applications indicate Skydance CEO David Ellison would hold voting control over the corporate entities that ultimately would run the combined companies. The initial pleading cycle saw arguments from labor unions for labor-related conditions on any license transfer approvals (see 2410080033).

Amazon's announcement it will end its free ad-supported Freevee streaming service is no shocker, as Freevee clearly was living on borrowed time since early this year when Amazon made ad-supported Prime Video the default tier for U.S. users, TVREV's Alan Wolk posted Friday on LinkedIn. Few viewers were even aware of Freevee's existence, since to many it seemed like an extension of Amazon Prime Video and not a freestanding service, he said. Accordingly, Freevee's ending should make the Prime Video experience less confusing. He said Prime Video competitors should be concerned about Amazon's huge ad-supported subscriber base, the data it has available, and its built-in platform to sell other goods to those subscribers.

Oppositions to the reconsideration petition that the Texas Coalition of Cities filed in May on the FCC's "all-in" video service pricing order are due Nov. 18, according to a correction in Wednesday's Federal Register. Replies are due Nov. 29. Oppositions and replies should be filed in docket 23-203. The petitioners are seeking clarification that payments used for capital costs of public, educational or governmental facilities that are required by a franchise agreement don't count as franchise fees.

Asset manager Gabelli, which holds a stake in Paramount Global, is asking the FCC to defer action on Skydance Media's proposed purchase of Paramount. In a docket 24-275 filing posted Tuesday, Gabelli said a deferral would provide it with sufficient time for an inquiry into the merger terms and "potential fiduciary and/or federal securities violations." Gabelli said that inquiry would let it know whether to initiate litigation for breach of fiduciary duty against Paramount's board, Skydance or National Amusements, which has a controlling stake in Paramount. The $8 billion transaction was announced in July (see 2407080025).

The FCC received no submissions from U.S.-based foreign media outlets for its latest semi-annual report to Congress, it said in the report Friday. The latest report covers April 12 to Oct. 11. The last several editions -- since May 2021 -- have listed no submissions (see 2405090055). The 2019 National Defense Authorization Act requires the reports.

Arguments against placing labor-related conditions on the Skydance/Paramount Global deal (see 2410230009) miss that the companies, not the unions, initially raised labor issues in their application, labor unions said in a docket 24-275 posted Friday. In their filing, the unions said they "simply want these commitments to be more detailed, and formally memorialized as a condition of the merger." The International Brotherhood of Teamsters Hollywood Local 399, Writers Guild of America West, Writers Guild of America East, Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and Communications Workers of America made the filing.