• Join Puck

    Directly Supporting Authors

    A new economic model in which writers are also partners in the business.

    Personalized Subscriptions

    Customize your settings to receive the newsletters you want from the authors you follow.

    Stay in the Know

    Connect directly with Puck talent through email and exclusive events.

  • What is puck? Newsletters Authors Podcasts Events Gift Puck Careers

A Spulu Silver Lining

Venu, the sports frankenstreamer that died on the vine, did have one lasting impact on the sports viewing universe: It gave birth to skinny bundle offerings, like DirecTV’s, that were meant to compete against it.

NFL
DirecTV wanted to get this deal done well before the NFL season in order to launch a marketing push. Photo: Nic Antaya/Getty Images
John Ourand
June 26, 2025

Venu (née Spulu), which closed up shop back in January, may be a distant memory, but its legacy lives on. In fact, the fallout from the decision by Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery to launch a joint venture sports streaming service recently took an interesting turn. Earlier today, DirecTV and Paramount signed an expansive programming deal, which will allow the satellite distributor to offer skinny bundles for kids, news, Spanish language programming, and yes, sports. That gives DirecTV’s skinny sports bundle access to all of the events on CBS Sports: the NFL, PGA Tour, Masters, March Madness, UEFA, etcetera.