On Thursday, fuboTV released its earnings for the first quarter of 2022 and announced that the service had finished Q1 with 1.056 million subscribers a loss of approximately 74,000 subscribers. However, the streamer did enjoy North American subscriber growth of 81% year-over-year. The service ended 2021 with 1.13 million subscribers thanks to a 150,000 subscriber bump in Q4 2021.
The small decline in subscriber numbers is to be expected as the sports-heavy streamer often sees a seasonal churn and return around football season. The fact that the Q1 losses were relatively modest should be encouraging when coupled with the yearly gains.
The company however, expects to drop below 1 million subscribers by the end of the second quarter, but still believes that they are on target for as many as 1.485 million subscribers by the end of the year.
In April, fubo raised its monthly subscription cost to $69.99 per month, automatically converting users who were subscribed to its $64.99 “Starter Plan” to its now-lowest $69.99 option. Customers in the Chicago and New England areas were also subject to regional sports network (RSN) price increases, now paying $8.99 per month (up from $5).
The company also tested eliminating their monthly plan during the quarter, but quickly reverted to their monthly option.
In comparison, Hulu Live TV is likely the largest Live TV Streaming Service with 4.3 million subscribers, while YouTube TV has an estimated 4 million subscribers. fuboTV is still behind Sling TV, which has has 2.49 million subscribers. They have passed Philo with 800K and AT&T TV with 646K subscribers (as of their final report in Q4 2020).
One of the areas that they plan to focus on is to bring more content to subscribers through free ad-supported channels.
“As part of strategy, we are focused on increasing the number of free ad-supported television channels, or FAST networks, offered on fuboTV,” the company said in a statement. “We believe these channels will enable us to grow profitable ad revenue as they bring premium programming to our customers with minimal expected content costs. Recent FAST channel launches on fuboTV include Fox Weather, Revry, Revry News, Tastemade en Espanol, Tastemade Travel and more.”
fuboTV’s 2021 was stellar, as the streamer crossed the 1 million subscriber mark and increased its revenue by over 100% compared to 2020, and its viewership totals rebounded to pre-COVID levels.
In January, expanded its popular “Multiview” mode on Apple TV to support elements of its “FanView” feature. Subscribers can create their own custom sports viewing dashboard on Apple TV by combining multiple streams (Multiview) with live stats and scores (FanView), configured on screen just as they like.
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.”