WBD sues Sling TV over its short-term pass offerings

Warner Bros. Discovery is suing Sling TV for including its networks as part of a “day pass” offering, a move that echoes a similar suit brought earlier by Disney.

Disney sues Sling over day-pass access to ESPN

Similar to the Disney case, WBD says that Sling’s move to offer its networks to subscribers for 24-hour, weekend or weeklong periods violates the terms of their distribution agreement.

These passes are marketed under the name Sling Orange.

WBD alleges that MVPD providers such as Sling can only offer its networks on a monthly basis and could see Sling Orange as a threat to its own streaming strategy and distribution deals with other pay TV providers.

WBD is prepping to launch a standalone direct to consumer CNN streamer — and Sling Orange includes CNN.

Disney appears to have taken particular issue with Sling Orange and its ESPN family of networks because it offers its own direct to consumer streamer that launched right around the same time as Sling’s new service debuted.

Sling rival Fubo also recently launched a “skinny” sports package that includes access to ESPN and its sister networks, but excludes WBD channels. This offering is sold as a part of a monthly subscription and does not appear to violate any agreements with Disney.

WBD and ESPN were slated to be partners, along with Fox Corp., on the canceled Venu Sports streamer, but those plans were scrapped. 

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Outside of this, WBD channels — both sports and non-sports — are available on a variety of pay TV providers, both legacy and vMVPDs, though not as a skinny offering.