Jan 6 (Reuters) - Three major media companies will ask

the U.S. Court of Appeals on Monday to reverse a ruling that

blocked the launch of their Venu Sports streaming service,

arguing that a district court judge was wrong to halt its

planned debut on antitrust grounds.

Walt Disney ( DIS ), Fox and Warner Bros Discovery ( WBD )

argue that the lower court's decision denies consumers

access to a new, lower-cost service designed to appeal to

price-conscious sports fans who have dropped out of the

traditional TV ecosystem or never subscribed in the first place.

Rival sports streaming service FuboTV sued the big

media companies last February, saying Venu Sports would violate

U.S. antitrust law by reducing competition and driving up

prices. A district court judge found that Fubo is likely to

succeed in its antitrust claims, and issued the injunction

temporarily barring Venu's launch.

"The district court's injunction forecloses competitive

entry, decreases consumer choice and denies consumers lower

prices-all with the effect of shielding Fubo from competition,"

the media companies argued in a Dec. 9 court filing. "The

decision should be reversed."

At issue is a practice known as bundling, in which the media

companies require distributors like Fubo to carry a package of

programming, including less desirable channels, to gain access

to valuable live sports.

Fubo said "forced bundling" prevented it from offering a

sports-centric service -- an exception the media companies made

for their own joint-venture, Venu Sports.

The Justice Department, New York, Illinois, California and

other states urged the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to

uphold the preliminary injunction.

In its supporting brief, the Justice Department cited the

district court's findings that restrictions on competition among

the joint-venture partners would effectively prevent other

sports-only services from emerging. That would grant the media

companies -- who collectively control about 54% of U.S. sports

rights -- dominance in distributing sports-focused TV packages

to consumers, the Justice Department wrote.

"The district court found that (the media companies) were

less likely, after forming Venu, to unbundle that content for

other distributors like Fubo wishing to create their own

sports-centric offerings," the Justice Department wrote. "This

foreclosure would harm competition in the live pay TV market."