Spulu Speaks! JV Says It Has a ‘Pro-Consumer’ Service for Underserved Viewers

Labeled as a “sports cartel” and “borderline racketeering,” among other pejoratives, by those who are suing the joint venture, as well as various other critics, the linear sports bundle being jointly launched by Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. has largely remained quiet amid the slings and arrows.

But that could be starting to change.

On Thursday, the Penske showbiz trades reported that veteran Disney PR worker Jessica Casano-Antonellis will run communications for the as-yet-unnamed JV … which has been called “Spulu” by the press, perhaps in the absence of any corpcom pushback.

Also on Thursday, after we wrote about a letter that Fubo sent to Congress — along with an oddly matched coalition of constituent backers that includes satellite TV companies Dish and DirecTV, the Electronic Frontiers Foundation and Newsmax — asking for a hearing on Spulu, we received this statement from the Fox corpcom team:

“The service is a pro-consumer offering to a segment of viewers who currently aren’t served. It will expand consumer choice by creating an incremental, nonexclusive option for this segment of viewers to watch their favorite sports.”