In recent months, fuboTV has tinkered with its pricing and subscription policies. The service tried dropping its free trial, tried moving to a quarterly subscription plan, and ultimately dropped its lower tier, raising the pricing floor to $69.99/month. After all that movement, it seems fuboTV’s price may hold steady… at least for now.
FuboTV co-founder and Chief Growth Officer Alberto Horihuela laid out the impact of recent price experiments during the company’s investor day presentation today. “In all our recent price-ups, we have seen a very modest one-time increase in churn, followed by a return to baseline. And indeed our most recent migration saw even less than expected churn, which is a testament to the value of our product. Having changed prices now several times, I think we have a strong pulse on our customers’ price elasticity.”
Savvy readers will note the lack of a Y-axis on this chart from fuboTV’s presentation.
In regard to pricing, Horihuela said, “We aren’t going to pull on this lever willy-nilly, but it’s important to note that relative to the average cable subscription, Fubo continues to provide excellent value for sports fans and their families.”
Horihuela later addressed the question of future price hikes, saying that fuboTV doesn’t want to do that unless it has to, but he reiterated the value of the service compared to cable. What remained unsaid was that fuboTV costs the same as Hulu Live TV, which includes free Disney+ and ESPN+.
CFO John Janedis did offer one cryptic note. “(FuboTV’s) content team will use data to drive decisions around our renewals in support of maintaining a portfolio of differentiated and compelling content with the greatest level of return. And here’s a hint: not all content is worth renewing.” This could mean future channel losses.
Chief Business Officer Henry Ahn said the company will expand its free-to-watch channels. “Since the beginning of the year, we’ve added over 40 FAST channels, bringing the total to about 50 today and our goal is to have about 100 by the end of the year,” Ahn said. “Looking at our progress over the past year, customers are watching 25% more FAST channels on our platform than before. And that share is mostly coming from traditional cable entertainment networks.”
Throughout the presentation, fuboTV officials reinforced their dedication to sports fans, yet the service is missing some crucial sports outlets, like MLB on TBS and NBA on TNT.
The company did note it is “seeking potential partners” for expanded sports betting options. FuboTV recently announced its betting programs are under “strategic review.”
Despite dipping below the 1 million subscriber mark in the most recent quarter, Janedis predicted fuboTV will have 1.3 million subscribers by the end of 2022.
Fubo
Fubo is a live TV streaming service with about 90 top channels that start at $79.99 per month. This plan includes local channels, 25 of the top 35 cable channels, and regional sports networks (RSNs). In total, you should expect to pay about $91.99 per month, after adding in their RSN Fee. Fubo was previously known as “fuboTV.”