Raphael Stevens

Venu Sports will be a case study in the value of marketing.
Sling TV already sells a product that’s similar to Venu Sports, and it’s been losing customers for five years.
Venu said Thursday the streaming service will cost $42.99 per month when it launches this fall.

Actor Jon Hamm playing Don Draper in Mad Men.
Michael Yarish | AMC | AP

Call Don Draper, Venu Sports may have a marketing problem
The Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery jointly-owned streaming service said Thursday it will launch this fall at $42.99 per month. That’s much more expensive than Netflix, Max, Peacock or any other major subscription streaming service. It’s a lot less than the $73-per-month YouTube TV or a standard cable bundle — but those offerings include a wide variety of entertainment content beyond sports.

Venu will give consumers access to a bundle of networks: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, Fox, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, and truTV. Subscribers will also get ESPN+. The plan is to debut in time for the football season. It doesn’t include CBS and NBC, two networks that have the rights to many sports, including college football and NFL games.
Venu’s theoretical user is someone willing to pay a hefty monthly subscription for a narrow segment of media — live sports, but not all live sports. The service is marketing itself as a product for so-called “cord nevers” — a set of younger consumers who haven’t wanted to pay for cable because it’s too expensive but have been yearning for access to ESPN and other live sports.
It’s entirely unclear this user base will materialize.
There are two major obstacles for Venu to succeed. First, the total addressable market of users who are OK with paying $43 per month for some sports but not OK with paying for cable may not be that high. Many non-cable subscribers are content to watch highlights on YouTube and their favorite influencers for commentary. According to a survey by Kantar, cited by YouTube at its 2024 upfront, 54% of people would rather watch creators break down a major live event than actually watch the event.
On the other end of the spectrum, NFL-crazed younger people will have to buy Peacock and Paramount+ — the streaming services attached to NBC and CBS — to get a full slate of NFL games. They could also get a digital antenna to pair with Venu, but antenna uptake among younger viewers may be a tad oxymoronic.

Other major sporting events — such as the ongoing Olympics — simply won’t be available on Venu, because Olympic broadcaster Comcast’s NBCUniversal isn’t a part of the service.

An existing player

The second problem is potentially bigger: A product like Venu already exists — and it may already be a better deal than Venu.
For $60 per month, Echostar’s Sling TV offers the popular networks that come with Venu — ESPN, TNT, TBS, Fox and ABC — but it also includes NBC. Moreover, it also comes with CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Bravo, USA, HLN, Discovery NFL Network, and a slew of other networks — 46 in all, to Venu’s 14. Plus, it comes with an introductory offer where consumers can pay just $30 for the first month.
For those that just want ESPN, Sling TV also offers a $40-per-month package that doesn’t include the broadcast networks but does come with TBS, TNT, CNN, and more than 20 other networks.

Sinseeho | Istock | Getty Images

As of the end of March, Sling TV had 1.92 million subscribers, and it’s not growing. It lost 135,000 customers in the first quarter, which was actually a narrower loss than the 234,000 subscribers it lost in the first quarter a year ago.
At the end of 2021, Sling TV had 2.5 million customers, down from the 2.7 million subscribers it topped out at in 2019.
The company blamed the existence of other streaming services for its decline last quarter.
“We continue to experience increased competition, including competition from other subscription video-on-demand and live-linear OTT service providers, many of which are providers of our content and offer football and other seasonal sports programming direct to subscribers on an a la carte basis,” Echostar said in a filing.
To sum up, Sling TV — a more robust offering than Venu for about $17 more per month — has been losing subscribers for five years and never got more than 2.7 million as its peak.
That’s quite the marketing challenge for Venu, which will need to convince consumers that it’s worth signing up for on the strength of branding and technology.
Or, it will hope that its $43 per month offer lasts long enough that it can take advantage of the $17 delta. The typical pattern for bundles of live networks is they start with an introductory offer only to raise prices. Venu hinted at this in its press release, telling consumers they could lock in the $43 per-month price for 12 months from time of sign-up — suggesting a price increase may be coming.
Venu wants to add more sports to the service in time, but that will likely cause the price to increase, making the value proposition an even tougher sell for cord-nevers.
Further undercutting Venu, Disney is already planning an ESPN Flagship streaming service in the fall of 2025, which will include ESPN for a lower price than Venu.
Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox will argue that they’re going for maximum coverage here — kind of like the Apple iPad mini did in slotting into the tech company’s existing product line-up between its phones and larger tablets. Maybe there’s an audience for Venu, and if there is, the companies want to serve it. Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch has already predicted the service can get 5 million subscribers in the next five years.
But even 5 million seems ambitious given Sling TV’s struggles. Getting there will require a lot of money spent on marketing.
And that effort may be so costly that it defeats the purpose.
Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the U.S. broadcast rights holder to all Summer and Winter Games through 2032. NBC Sports broadcasts NFL games. More

Starting this week, Kohl’s is opening 200 Babies R Us shops across the country.
The retailer wants to cater more to young families by giving them another reason to visit stores.
The company is also bulking up other parts of its assortment, such as expanding home decor, introducing a maternity line and adding more impulse items.

Kohl’s plans to have 200 Babies R Us shops in its stores by the end of September. The retailer will sell a wide variety of baby gear, including strollers, car seats and cribs.
Courtesy: Kohl’s

WOODLAND PARK, N.J. — Kohl’s is thinking small to rev up its sales.
The retailer is opening Babies R Us shops in its existing stores across the country starting this week, and plans to have 200 by the end of September. The shops will carry a variety of baby merchandise that the company has not offered before, including shampoo, strollers and car seats. Kohl’s previously sold only baby clothing.

With the move, the Wisconsin-based retailer aims to cater more to young families, whether they are decorating their homes, getting ready for back-to-school or preparing for a new addition. Most of the retailer’s approximately 1,170 stores are in strip malls in the suburbs, a short drive for busy parents who are running errands or shopping for groceries.
Along with the baby category, Kohl’s is also bulking up its assortment of home decor, gifting and impulse items. CEO Tom Kingsbury estimated in late May that those expanded categories, including Babies R Us, are “a $2 billion-plus sales opportunity” in the coming years.
Yet, U.S. demographics aren’t tipped in Kohl’s favor. Births in the U.S. totaled 3.59 million last year, according to provisional data from the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics. That is the lowest number of births in more than 40 years.
On a store tour in New Jersey on Wednesday, Chief Merchandising Officer Nick Jones showed off the first Babies R Us shop. Customers who walk through the location can see and feel many pricier items, such as strollers, cribs and high chairs, outside of the cardboard box. The shops include many prominent baby brands, including Hatch, Frida, Graco and BabyBjorn.
Over the past few weeks, online shoppers have also seen Babies R Us on Kohl’s website. Its website has twice as much merchandise as the approximately 800 to 1,000 items available in most shops, the company said. Kohl’s will also launch a baby registry in the fall.

Each shop will range in size, but will be set up next to the baby and kid’s clothing that is currently in all stores. Jones said more merchandise is on the way for expecting families, too, including baby apparel from Nike. It is introducing maternity clothing from Motherhood, a direct-to-consumer brand, which will be exclusive to Kohl’s stores.
The retailer is rolling out Babies R Us shops at a time when it needs growth drivers. Kohl’s net sales totaled $16.6 billion in the most recent fiscal year, which ended in early February. That is a nearly 14% drop from five years ago.
Kohl’s expects current full-year net sales to decline between 2% and 4%. It posted a surprise net loss of $27 million for the fiscal first quarter and lowered its full-year forecast in late May.
Kohl’s shares are down 24% this year, trailing the S&P 500’s nearly 16% gains during the same period.

Similar to other retailers, Kohl’s has contended with shoppers who are putting off discretionary purchases while spending more on everyday expenses such as groceries and housing. Yet, Kohl’s challenges go beyond that, according to Dana Telsey, CEO and chief research officer of Telsey Advisory Group. She said it needs to sharpen its merchandise to grab the attention of new and existing customers.
“There’s been so much competition from others out there,” she said. “A brand has to stand for something and matter.”

Inside of Kohl’s Babies R Us shops, customers can touch and feel some of the pricier items that may be on their shopping list or registry.
Courtesy: Kohl’s

Lower births, but more premium products

Kohl’s is betting on the baby category as innovative products and higher-end items such as fancy strollers drive spending.
Baby gear sales totaled $7.5 billion for the 12-month period that ended in May, up 4% from the same period in 2020, according to Circana, a market research firm that tracks the space. It includes a wide range of items such as car seats, strollers, bottles, bassinets, high chairs, cribs and breast feeding systems.
Stephen Hinz, an industry advisor at Circana who tracks sales of baby products, said customers’ willingness to pay for premium baby gear has fueled spending.
He noted the U.S. Census Bureau has found that the median age of U.S. women giving birth is 30 years old.
“People are in a much different life stage at that point,” he said. “They’re older. They’re more established in their careers. They’re more likely to own a home. They have more disposable income. And those have greater influence on the things that they might choose to bring into those homes.”
Hinz said the market has remained stable despite the lower birth rate, as parents spring for fancier items such as natural wood cribs and car seats that rotate to make it easier to get a baby in and out. Families will stretch their budgets to support a child’s health and safety even during tougher economic times, he said.
Plus, new parents have more retailers and brands to choose from and new ways of registering for baby items. Big-box chains Target and Walmart have expanded their baby departments. Macy’s launched its own baby registry in late April. Universal registries, such as Zola and Babylist, have gained popularity by allowing customers to choose items across retailers’ and brands’ websites.
In an interview with CNBC in March, Kingsbury said there is market share up for grabs in the category. He referred to the bankruptcy and store closures of Bed Bath and Beyond, the parent of Buy Buy Baby.
And, he said, customers who shop at Babies R Us will also buy items in other departments.
Kohl’s is making a similar move to what it has done with Sephora beauty shops, which it is opening in all of its stores. On earnings calls, Kohl’s leaders have said the shops are drawing younger and more diverse customers.
Jones said Kohl’s will decide whether to open Babies R Us in more stores after learning from the first 200 shops.

Kohl’s will put Babies R Us shops next to its existing baby apparel. It is also adding related merchandise, such as baby clothing from Nike and maternity clothes from Motherhood.
Courtesy: Kohl’s

Is Babies R Us still relevant?

As it relaunches Babies R Us, Kohl’s will test whether the brand has remained relevant or grown stale.
The brands of Babies R Us and its former parent Toys R Us are now owned by WHP Global, a New York City-based brand management company. The firm has bought and tried to rebuild other brands, including Bonobos, Rag & Bone and Isaac Mizrahi. Toys R Us shuttered its stores after filing for bankruptcy in 2017.
Kohl’s and WHP Global, which announced the deal in March, have not disclosed the financial terms of the agreement.
Along with the Kohl’s deal, WHP Global also struck an agreement with Macy’s, which has opened Toys R Us shops in many of its department stores.
Kohl’s move is risky because tastes have changed since the brand’s heyday in the ’80s and ’90s, said Natalie Gordon, founder and CEO of Babylist.
She said many retailers have fallen short on their customer experience with little chance to test products hands-on. She recalled her frustrations with retailers when she got ready to have her first child about 13 years ago, which sparked the idea for Babylist.
“I felt infantilized by the brands that were out there,” she said. “Things were pink and blue with little cartoon characters. And I’m a woman having a baby. It really didn’t resonate at all.”
The latest version of Babies R Us at Kohl’s features the familiar brand font, but Kohl’s and WHP gave the brand a more contemporary look, said Christie Raymond, Kohl’s chief marketing officer.
“There’s a lot of credibility,” she said. “But we did need to modernize.”
The shops are decorated with sleek baby photos rather than pastels or cartoon mascots, such as Toys R Us’ Geoffrey the Giraffe.
Kohl’s will use a marketing tool that did not exist during Babies R Us’ peak. It plans to partner with influencers who can spread the word about the shops on Instagram and TikTok.

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UConn star Paige Bueckers will sign a name, image and likeness deal with the new women’s basketball league Unrivaled.
She will not play in the professional league until she finishes her college career next year.
She is believed to be the first college player to receive equity in a pro sports league.

Paige Bueckers, #5 of the UConn Huskies, shoots the ball in the second half during the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament Final Four semifinal game against the Iowa Hawkeyes at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio, on April 5, 2024.
Steph Chambers | Getty Images

University of Connecticut star Paige Bueckers will sign a name, image and likeness deal with the new women’s basketball league Unrivaled, people familiar with the matter told CNBC.
The agreement is believed to make her the first NCAA athlete to receive an ownership stake in a professional sports league, as more lax endorsement rules allow college players to seek more endorsement and business opportunities. Terms of the deal were not available.

Unrivaled was founded last year by Women’s National Basketball Association players Breanna Stewart of the New York Liberty and Napheesa Collier of the Minnesota Lynx. The league will kick off in January ahead of the WNBA season.
The two-time NCAA All-American Bueckers will likely be visible in promoting the league, but will not play until she finishes her college career at UConn, the people said. In February, Bueckers announced she would forgo the 2024 WNBA Draft to return to UConn for her senior season.
Unrivaled was started as a way to allow WNBA basketball players the option to play in the U.S. during their offseason. Previously, many players had to go overseas to supplement their WNBA salaries.
The player-owned league provides equity stakes to all 30 players, and no one will make under six figures. Current WNBA max salaries top out roughly around $250,000 per season.
The league will consist of six teams, competing 3 on 3 in full-court play. Players so far announced in the league include Stewart, Collier, Chelsea Gray and Kelsey Plum of the Las Vegas Aces and Arike Ogunbowale of the Dallas Wings. Angel Reese of the Chicago Sky was the first player from this year’s WNBA rookie class to join the league.
The star-studded list of investors in the league include Bueckers’ UConn head coach Geno Auriemma; former National Basketball Association players Carmelo Anthony and Steve Nash; former and current soccer stars Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe; media executives John Skipper and David Levy; and actor Ashton Kutcher.

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U.S. women’s rugby star Ilona Maher reflected on winning the bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Paris, a victory that has reinvigorated the national team program.
The 27-year-old has also built an active fan base on social media.
Businesswoman and investor Michele Kang, who also owns professional soccer teams, announced a $4 million gift to the U.S. women’s rugby sevens team after the medal.

Ilona Maher became one of the Paris Olympics’ heroes after leading the U.S. rugby team to its first-ever Olympic medal for men or women.
The 27-year-old, frequently clad in bright red lipstick, helped Team USA bring home the bronze medal in a nail-biting win over Australia on Tuesday.

Following her win, the Vermont native spoke to CNBC about investments in women’s sports, how the victory will help rugby grow and how she has built a brand that includes millions of social media followers.
Maher said she has been focused on the 2024 Summer Olympics for the past three years — and the team’s existence after the games was not certain.
“Our coach said to us if we don’t win a medal, we might not have a program next year, and so that really stuck with me, those words, and so we delivered,” Maher said.
Fresh off the win against Australia, more good news came for U.S. rugby. Businesswoman and investor Michele Kang, who also owns professional soccer teams, announced a $4 million gift to the USA women’s rugby sevens team in a bid to grow the sport. Sevens refers to the teams that comprise up to seven people in that variation of rugby.
Maher said the donation, which will be rolled out over the next four years ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, will give the team needed momentum.

“I’m so happy that people are taking notice of it,” Maher said. “We’re trying to make this program better for all the women who came before us, who had to work full-time jobs to do this to make it better for all those coming in later.”
Maher said savvy investors will figure out that investing in women’s sports is good business, and there is money to be made.
“The personalities in women’s sports is just unlike that of the men. I think the way people connect with women is something special.”

Maher’s path to Olympic medalist

Maher didn’t even pick up the sport until she was 17. As a former field hockey, basketball and soccer player, she caught on quickly and never looked back.
She was recruited by Quinnipiac University, where she played center and helped the team win three national championships. She was named the nation’s top college rugby player in 2017.
Since college, Maher went on to compete in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, and then represented the U.S. at the 2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens in South Africa.

Ilona Maher, #2 of Team USA, runs with the ball while under pressure from Emma Uren, #7 of Team Great Britain, during the Women’s Rugby Sevens quarterfinal match between Team Great Britain and Team USA on day three of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Stade de France in Paris, France, on July 29, 2024.
Michael Steele | Getty Images

Maher said she has a degree in nursing, but has not yet had to use it. Instead, she said she has been building her brand on social media to complement her athletic career. She currently has more than two million followers on Instagram and another two million on TikTok.
“I want this to be what I can do for the rest of my life,” Maher said of her athletic career.
“I knew that platforms like TikTok and Instagram could be what does that for me, to create a brand, to put yourself out there … so it’s been really cool to build that up,” she added.
The 5’10” Olympic medalist has also made a name for herself promoting body positivity. She has represented brands such as Secret deodorant and reminded her followers that “All body types can be Olympians.”
She also is not afraid to show her silly side, whether it’s testing out the cardboard beds in the Paris Olympic village, converting football star Jason Kelce to a rugby fan or fangirling with Snoop Dogg.
Following the Olympics, Maher said she is ready for a much-needed break.
“I’m throwing my phone in the lake, and I’m not looking at it for a week,” she said.
“I think it’s going to be about hanging out with family, being able to relax and re-center in a way — and make some money,” she added.
Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the U.S. broadcast rights holder to all Summer and Winter Games through 2032.

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Biogen reported second-quarter earnings and revenue that topped estimates and hiked its full-year guidance as cost-cutting efforts showed progress and sales of its breakthrough Alzheimer’s drug, Leqembi, and other new products came in higher than expected. 
The biotech company is pinning its hopes on Leqembi and other new products to drive growth as it reduces costs and grapples with declining demand for its multiple sclerosis therapies.
Uptake of Leqembi appears to be picking up, with roughly $40 million in sales for the quarter.

A test tube is seen in front of displayed Biogen logo in this illustration taken on, December 1, 2021.
Dado Ruvic | Reuters

Biogen on Thursday reported second-quarter earnings and revenue that topped estimates and hiked its full-year guidance, as the company’s cost cuts showed progress and sales of its breakthrough Alzheimer’s drug, Leqembi, and other new products beat expectations. 
Biogen now expects full-year adjusted earnings to come in at $15.75 to $16.25 per share, up from a previous forecast of $15 to $16 per share.

The biotech company also expects 2024 sales to decline by a low-single-digit percentage. Biogen’s previous outlook was a low- to mid-single-digit percentage decrease from last year. 
Leqembi, which Biogen shares with Eisai, became the second drug proven to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s to win approval in the U.S. last summer. The therapy’s launch has been gradual due to bottlenecks related to diagnostic test requirements and regular brain scans, among other issues. 
But uptake of Leqembi appears to be picking up, with roughly $40 million in sales for the quarter. That’s above the $31 million analysts had expected, according to estimates compiled by StreetAccount. 
The drug posted just $10 million in sales last year following its launch. 
Biogen did not disclose how many patients are currently on Leqembi. The company in May said roughly 5,000 people were taking the drug.

Still, Leqembi faces hurdles in Europe, where a drug regulator recommended against approving the treatment due to its risk of brain swelling and bleeding. Biogen was “quite surprised and rather perplexed” by the decision and will seek a reexamination of it, the company’s CEO Chris Viehbacher told reporters on a press call Thursday.
Biogen hopes Leqembi and other new products will drive growth as it reduces costs and grapples with plunging demand for its multiple sclerosis therapies, some of which face competition from cheaper generics. 
“I can say today that all of the launches are in line with or ahead of expectations,” he said.
The company is on track to achieve roughly $1 billion in gross cost savings, or $800 million in net savings, by the end of 2025, according to Viehbacher.
Viehbacher added that “while you can see a significant decline in our operating expenses, we have at the same time, been able to invest massively in our new product launches and in those research and development projects that we think are the most important.”
Here’s what Biogen reported for the second quarter compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG: 

Earnings per share: $5.28 adjusted vs. $4.03 expected
Revenue: $2.47 billion vs. $2.38 billion expected

Biogen booked sales of $2.47 billion for the quarter, which is roughly flat from the year-earlier period.
The drugmaker posted net income of $583.6 million, or $4 per share, for the second quarter. That compares with net income of $591.6 million, or $4.07 per share, for the same period a year ago. 
Adjusting for one-time items, the company reported earnings of $5.28 per share. 
Investors are closely watching other newly launched drugs apart from Leqembi. That includes Skyclarys, which came from Biogen’s acquisition of Reata Pharmaceuticals in July 2023. 
The treatment booked $100 million in sales for the second quarter. Analysts had expected the drug to take in $92.3 million for the quarter, according to StreetAccount. 
The Food and Drug Administration greenlit Skyclarys last year, making it the first approved treatment for Friedreich’s ataxia, a rare inherited degenerative disease that can impair walking and coordination in children as young as 5. 

More CNBC health coverage

Viehbacher said the launch of Skyclarys is going “extremely well.” The company expects to market the drug in 20 countries by the end of the year, he added.
Zurzuvae, the first pill for postpartum depression, generated second-quarter sales of $14.9 million. Analysts had expected just $11 million in sales of that drug, StreetAccount estimates said.
Biogen shares that pill with Sage Therapeutics.
Meanwhile, Biogen’s second-quarter sales from multiple sclerosis treatments fell 5% to $1.15 billion as some products face competition from cheaper generics. 
Still, some of those drugs posted higher-than-expected sales. 
Tecfidera, for example, booked $252.2 million in revenue in the second quarter, which is relatively flat from the year-earlier period. Analysts had expected the once-blockbuster drug to rake in $233.3 million in revenue for the quarter, according to StreetAccount.
Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify that Biogen acquired Reata Pharmaceuticals in July 2023. 

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