You. Elizabeth Warren And Bernie Sanders Representatives Joaquin Castro and Jerry Nadler It expressed concern about the upcoming launch of Venu Sports, warning that the offering could allow Fox, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery to “discriminate against competitors and increase prices for consumers.”

“This massive new sports broadcasting company would be poised to control more than 80% of nationally broadcast sports and more than half of all national sports content, putting it in a position to wield monopoly power over televised sports,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday. “The television industry has become increasingly consolidated after decades of content providers engaging in mergers and acquisitions that continue to reduce competition. There is no sign of this trend abating as content providers vertically integrate with broadcasters and streaming companies seeking to control content from production to consumption.”

Warren, Sanders and Castro argue that Venu is a continuation of this trend and that its joint venture status “should not prevent antitrust and telecommunications regulators from giving it the scrutiny it deserves.”

“Under the guise of consumer choice, Fox, Disney, and Warner Bros. have proposed to jointly develop a product that would allow them to stop competing on live sports and instead use their shared dominance of sports programming to support their own broadcast networks, reducing competition and depriving consumers of a choice between over-the-air, cable, or streaming providers,” they added. “The DOJ and FCC should closely scrutinize this transaction and take immediate action to block it if it violates antitrust law or otherwise serves the public interest, convenience, or necessity.”

Bloomberg previously reported that the DOJ planned to launch an antitrust investigation into Venu. In a separate investigation by Castro and Nadler, lawmakers have asked Fox, Disney and WBD to answer any questions they have and copy those answers to the DOJ.

Representatives for the Justice Department and FCC did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

Venu Sports, scheduled to launch this fall subject to regulatory approval, will offer subscribers thousands of live sports from all major sports leagues and top college conferences, along with access to ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, FOX, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, truTV and ESPN+ for $42.99 per month. The offering is aimed at sports fans outside of the traditional TV package and is available directly through a new app.

Anyone who signs up for Venu’s launch price will be able to stay at that price for 12 months from the time they sign up, and can cancel at any time. A seven-day free trial will also be available.

Content will include live games and event coverage for NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, WNBA, NCAA Division I football and basketball, U.S. and international soccer, combat sports, Grand Slam tennis, championship golf, INDYCAR, NASCAR and F1 auto racing and more.

It will also feature studio shows and pre- and post-game programming including ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” “First Take,” “Get Up!”, “College GameDay” and “The Pat McAfee Show,” Fox’s “NFL Sunday,” “The Herd With Colin Cowherd,” “First Things First” and TNT’s “Inside the NBA,” as well as a library of on-demand sports content including ESPN’s “30 for 30,” ESPN+ originals, documentaries from ESPN Films, Fox Sports Films and more.

Subscribers will also have the ability to bundle Venu with Disney+, Hulu or Max.

The lawmakers argue that Venu would “combine the sports programming of the world’s second, fifth and ninth highest-revenue media companies” and allow the trio to use their extensive control over licensing rights to exert joint control over live sports from distribution to broadcast, vertically integrating the sports streaming market by offering a new platform for their licensed content.

They argued that the proposed structure provided Venu’s partners with “a clear financial incentive to favour their streaming platform over alternative sports streaming providers in licensing and packaging deals”.

“If this JV is allowed to continue, competitors would have to negotiate with Fox, Disney, and Warner Bros. for access to more than half of the major sports licensing rights while also competing with those companies to offer the best product to air or stream those programs,” the letter said. “The streaming platform’s competitors argued that the parent companies did not offer similar opportunities to air only live sports programming, but instead required competitors to air a package of channels that often included far less appealing programming, driving up costs for the streaming services and consumers.”

Warren, Sanders and Castro also argued that Venu “removes any economic incentive for these entities to continue to compete for sports licensing rights” by allowing the companies to “coordinate their market power over content rights to sell larger packages and gain an expanded subscriber base.”

“This consolidation could lead to higher prices and fewer choices for consumers,” they added. “By funneling more than half of major U.S. sporting events to a single platform, Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. will have the power to eliminate competition and set a price floor, likely resulting in higher-priced games, fewer viewing options, and less diverse coverage.”

If the Justice Department were to treat Venu as a merger, lawmakers have said it would create additional antitrust issues. They cited a complaint filed by Fubo that alleged Venu would receive a market concentration score of 3,400 on the Justice Department’s Herfindahl-Hirschman Index — more than doubling the concentration in sports licensing nationwide and exceeding the agency’s threshold for a highly concentrated market (Fubo and Venu’s partners are in hearings this week in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York after filing an antitrust lawsuit to block the former Venu).

They also argue that Venu is not consistent with the FCC’s national ownership limit goals, which require that no company own stations that reach more than 39% of U.S. television households.

“Given Venu’s potentially broad and complex framework, which is expected to include the parent companies’ broadcast stations and affect other broadcasters, we believe the FCC should carefully consider whether the broad authority granted by Congress covers this transaction or portions of it,” the lawmakers wrote.

Fox, Disney and WBD will each own a 1/3 stake, have equal representation on the board and will license sports content to the joint venture on a non-exclusive basis.

The business trio had previously said they would continue to bid for sports rights and negotiate with distributors separately and independently, and that Venu was targeting 1 million subscribers in the first year of its launch and 5 million subscribers in the first five years. It is currently expected to launch this fall.

As for revenue from the partnership, the companies are expected to earn a similar carrying fee rate to what they get from other distribution channels their networks have a presence in. Each member of the trio will be responsible for selling their own advertising, and a person close to the venture previously told TheWrap that they will keep all ad revenue from their content.

Representatives for Venu Sports and its parent company did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

The article Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren Call on Government to Investigate Sports Venues for Anti-Competitive Model appeared first on TheWrap.