Fubo Loses 61K Subscribers, But Improves Revenue

Fubo lost more than 60,000 subscribers, according to its earnings call, but managed to limit its losses in the second quarter of 2024.

The service, which is billed primarily as a streaming service dedicated to sports events, ended the quarter with 1.45 million subscribers, still up 24% from a year earlier.

“Fubo delivered excellent results in the second quarter of 2024 despite the decline in Warner Bros. Discovery content, delivering our sixth consecutive quarter of year-over-year improvement in our global profitability metrics,” said David Gandler, co-founder and CEO of Fubo, in a statement.

In April 2024, Fubo announced that its licensing deal for WBD’s Discovery, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, TNT, TBS and truTV, among other content, had fallen through. Fubo said it had offered WBD “market rates,” but the company declined to renew the deal without a counteroffer or enter into further negotiations.

The company reported a loss of $26.7 million, a significant improvement from the previous year’s loss of $50 million.

Revenue rose 25% to $391 million, with $382 million coming from North American customers. Average revenue per subscriber rose to $85.69.

Looking ahead, Fubo is targeting about 1.6 million subscribers in the third quarter, which would indicate continued growth. Its revenue target is $350 million to $360 million, which would be a decline from the second quarter.

The streaming company expects to have around 1.7 million subscribers by the end of 2024, with annual revenue ranging from $1.57 billion to $1.59 billion.

Fubo also warned investors about “unknown issues surrounding the potential launch of Venu Sports,” which is expected to launch in fall 2024.

Fubo is suing the ESPN-Fox-WBD joint venture, which will combine ESPN’s linear broadcasts, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC Network, ACC Network, ESPNews, ABC, Fox, FS1, FS2, Big Ten Network, TNT, TBS, and truTV, as well as offer on-demand content, citing antitrust concerns.

“Fubo is taking action against these unfair market conditions to avoid passing on additional costs to consumers,” the company said in a statement.

Venu has announced preliminary pricing for early August 2024.

There’s no official word on whether the removal of WBD’s channels from Fubo, which also offers non-sports channels, could be related to the joint venture, though it’s hard not to see it as a strategic move on WBD’s part.

Fubo’s subscriber count is very low; Netflix has about 84 million subscribers in North America, while most other major streaming platforms have at least 10 million or more subscribers, according to user-reported data and third-party estimates.