Fubo

“This is a very important process. We are sticking to our principles, to our guns,” David Gandler told analysts Friday.

The announcement that ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros Discovery were forming a new sports streaming venture sent shares of sports-oriented Fubo spiraling downward. Fubo stock was down 25% to $1.88 a share in Wednesday morning trading.

The agreement covers 89 Nexstar-owned stations across the U.S. and its NewsNation national cable news network.

Fubo is bringing AI-powered streaming music audio-only channels to its virtual MVPD service with the help of partner Super Hi-Fi. Fubo on Tuesday announced the launch of 10 fully branded free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel radio stations, collectively dubbed “Fubo Radio,” on its sports-centric live TV streaming platform in the U.S.

Fubo said it cut its net losses while added 310,000 subscribers in North America, giving a record number of customers. The net loss for the virtual multichannel video programming distributor was $83.8 million, 29 cents a share, compared to $162.6 million or 82 cents a share, a year ago. Revenues rose 43% to  $420.9 million

Fubo reduced its second quarter loss as revenue per subscriber increased. Fubo’s second quarter loss shrunk to $49.9 million, or 17 cents a share, from $116.1 million, or 63 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue rose 41% to $312.7 million. Fubo said it had 1.167 million North American subscribers, up 23% from a year ago, but down from 1.285 million at the end of the first quarter. Average revenue per subscriber rose 13% to $81.62, cutting its domestic loss to $41 million.

Today Fubo reported their 2nd quarter 2023 earnings and posted a loss of 118,000 subscribers in just three years. In total, Fubo has 1,167,000 subscribers in North America, down from 1,285,000 subscribers at the end of the 1st quarter of 2023.

Executives with sports-centric streaming service Fubo met with officials at the FCC last week to express concern over a proposal to reclassify streaming cable TV replacements in a way that would require them to fundamentally change certain aspects of their business. Specifically, the proposal concerns whether to group virtual MVPD streaming services like Fubo as multichannel video programming distributors, or MVPDs, in the same ilk as traditional cable and satellite TV services like Comcast’s Xfinity, Charter’s Spectrum, Dish and DirecTV.

Fubo said it reduced its first-quarter loss despite losing about 160,000 domestic subscribers since the end of the year. The company’s results exceeded Wall Street expectations and Fubo shares jumped 32% in midday trading Friday. The company finished the quarter with 1.285 million North American subscribers, which is up  22% from a year ago.

CBS local affiliates have rejoined Fubo’s virtual MVPD TV lineup after being pulled from the live streaming TV service earlier this year amid a renewal spat with Paramount Global. On Friday a Fubo spokesperson said: “Virtually all CBS local affiliates have returned to Fubo and are now live.” It marks the latest resolution in a somewhat messy carriage dispute that pitted the CBS affiliate board and its represented local station owners against Paramount Global.

With the integration of the DTC service, Fubo is aggressively marketing its virtual pay TV service as the destination for live baseball ahead of Opening Day.

Virtual MVPD FuboTV in 2022 hit the milestone of reaching $1 billion in global annual revenue for the first time, while recording subscriber and advertising revenue gains in the fourth quarter. During Monday’s earnings call executives also reported encouraging early churn trends after a recent price hike, and rebuffed concerns over increased sports competition from fellow vMVPD YouTube TV.

Paramount Global will provide FuboTV with a CBS network feed — stripped of local programming — to stream in markets where CBS affiliates turned down a distribution fee deal negotiated by the network. According to a confidential memo sent to affiliates by the CBS affiliate board, CBS set a 5 p.m. Friday (Jan. 27) deadline for stations to opt in or out of the deal. In markets where stations opt out, their programming will be replaced with the network feed on Fubo effective today at 5 p.m. The national feed, including sports and primetime shows, with use content from the CBS News Streaming Network to replace a station’s local programming including local newscasts, CBS said. The new deal would run until after CBS airs the Super Bowl in 2024.

Paramount told CBS affiliates that they had until 5 p.m. today to agree to a retransmission consent deal that it had struck with Fubo or they would replace them on the vMVPD with a CBS “network feed” without the affiliates’ local programming, according to a CBS affiliate board email sent Friday afternoon to its members.

With Iowa already secured, the streaming company has three of the 20 states with legal sports betting locked in for its new service Fubo Sportsbook through Caesars Entertainment Inc.

The fuboTV streaming service has finally nabbed ESPN for its sports-focused package offerings, while also retrieving a slew of Disney entertainment channels, including FX and NatGeo, after they were dropped following The Walt Disney Co.’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox assets last year.

Fubo TV has added NHL Network, MLB Network and MLB Network Strike Zone to its channel lineup. The additions mean that Fubo now offers access to every professional sports league channel.