A jury trial of Fubo's antitrust lawsuit against Disney, Fox Corp. and Warner Bros. Discovery will start October 6, 2025, a federal judge decided Thursday.

U.S. District Court Judge Margaret Garnett issued an order setting out the trial date as well as several key dates leading up to it, including deadlines for motions for dismissal and the process of discovery. While some alterations could be made to the schedule along the way, Garnett wrote, "the start date for the trial, in particular, should be treated as firm."

The date is closer to Fubo's preferred window than the defendants', who had suggested February 2026. "With Venu on the sidelines for the moment, there is no need for a rush," Fox attorney Andrew Levander told Garnett during a pretrial conference in Manhattan earlier Thursday. He noted that there will be an "enormous amount" of discovery material requiring analysis in the coming months. Long-private details of carriage negotiations - a lucrative but highly secretive pillar of the modern media business - is expected to come to light in discovery, both sides acknowledge.

Garnett noted two factors that could accelerate the trial schedule. One would be if the Second Circuit Court of Appeals sides with the Venu partners and lifts her preliminary injunction order, allowing Venu to launch. The other would be if the judge decides to grant any coming motions to dismiss any of the counts in the Fubo complaint, thereby simplifying the case.

Fubo, a pay-TV provider with nearly 1.5 million subscribers, filed the suit last February after the media companies announced the streaming joint venture Venu Sports. Offering linear feeds of 15 sports-focused networks, the service was to have launched last month at a cost of $43 a month, significantly lower than what full-scale providers like Fubo charge. The company said Venu was a monopolistic venture and, in a stunning ruling last month, Garnett agreed. She granted the company's preliminary injunction request, which prevented Venu from launching.

In the full lawsuit, Fubo has alleged multiple violations of antitrust law, attacking the approach to distribution negotiations by the three Venu partners. The practices drive prices higher and create a business impairment for Fubo, the company argues, by forcing it to pay to carry less-watched networks in exchange for gaining access to the more preferred ones. Fubo also says it had sought to launch a sports-only service but was refused access to networks like ESPN.

Garnett said the trial would take a minimum of two weeks, but the attorneys generally agreed it would likely take about a month to complete.