Victory+ removed founder Neil Gruninger as chief executive on Thursday and replaced him with board member Jon Spencer after three rightsholders walked away in 15 days. The platform said it needed to reimagine its future after the exodus and its failure to secure crucial financing.
The change lands at a brittle moment for a company built on the idea that teams would trade lower upfront risk for a share of ad money. Victory+ still streams the NHL's Stars, and the team holds a percentage of equity in the business, but the platform has now lost the Ducks, the Rangers and the NWSL after missed rights fee payments forced those partners out.
That is the business model now under strain. Victory+ had been asking teams to renegotiate contracts it could not support because the deals carried significant rights fees, even as it kept promoting a free-stream approach in which it paid an undisclosed minimum guarantee and recouped money through advertising revenue sharing. The Rangers were even allowed to stream behind a Victory+ paywall, a sign the company was willing to bend its pitch when the original structure no longer fit.
Gruninger is not leaving the company. He will stay on to focus on technology and innovation, while Victory+ said he will more closely concentrate on strategic relationships, business development and long-term vision. In a statement, he said APMC had evolved from a single platform into an industry-defining company that puts audiences first, added that he was proud of what the company had built through every industry shift, and said he was excited to sharpen his focus on driving the long-term vision and deepening key partner relationships.
The problem is that Victory+ says it wants to lean into exclusive team and league deals just as multiple partners have already terminated contracts. The platform still has agreements to stream League One Volleyball and Texas prep football in conjunction with the University Interscholastic League and the Texas High School Coaches Association, and it also streams games for the WNBA's Lynx and Dream under advertising revenue share deals that do not include rights fee payments. But the company has already been pushed away from the broader, free-streaming model it sold as recently as six months ago, when Gruninger pitched it to 20 NBA and NHL teams.
What comes next is not whether Victory+ keeps changing, but whether it can do so without more exits. The Stars remain its most important and informative deal, and Victory+ believes that relationship will stay intact. After the last 15 days, that confidence is now the company's most important asset.
