fuboTV CEO on Potential Return of TBS & TNT, Price Hikes, & Enhancements to the Service
During fuboTV’s time during the Deutsche Bank Conference, CEO David Gandler said the company is doubling down on its sports-focused content offerings with an added focus on launching their own sportsbook.
Rather than partnering with an existing brand, fuboTV acquired Vigtory, a smaller digital sportsbook, that will fully integrate into its sports coverage. While they won’t allow bets on TV, it will allow them to use viewer data to get the user the right bet slip on their mobile device.
“If you’re watching a Lakers game on fubo, we can already push you a bet slip before even opening your app right to that Lakers game or potentially to a play that you wanted to bet on. That’s a more immersive experience even without having the product integrations.” Gandler did not confirm whether there would ever be true integrations between fuboTV and their sportsbook, but mentioned that the integration would only exist in the betting app to avoid kids gaining access to sports gambling.
Gandler was asked whether a sports service could be without March Madness – and whether TNT and TBS could return to the platform.
“Yes. There’s always potential. I mean we’re optimizing our bundles all the time. I think I’ve said even before we had ESPN, we would love to have every content provider because the more you have, the better. But there is a reality that this is supposed to be a relatively skinnier bundle,” said Gandler.
“96% of our users watch sports, so it allows us to amortize sports content in ways that other services can’t given the more of a general entertainment-type audience that they have. We’re having discussions all the time, and hopefully, there’s an opportunity to bring them back at some point.”
Outside of the incoming sportsbook features, Gandler mentioned other sports-themed features will eventually find their way to fuboTV. fuboTV is adding more interactivity with their Balto Sports acquisition, which will allow them to add a free-to-play option to the TV platform.
“We’re planning to launch free predictive games on the video platform. Those could launch nationally, allowing us to continue to A/B test and learn about conversion rates and how we plan to sort of add wagering into the video platform. So that’s an area of focus for us from a product perspective, which allows us to further differentiate from our competitors, both now in the gaming and in the video space.”
“We’ll continue to focus on discovery on the platform to surface the most relevant content. We’ll also look to surface the right events and games. We’re focused on just improving the service altogether and developing in a way that allows us to continue to iterate. So product focus is central going forward.”
On Potential Price Hikes
Gandler was asked about the company’s recent price hike to $65 and reported the company tripled their net adds from the prior year. Gandler attributed the increase to fuboTV’s sports content, especially local sports including NESN and MSG.
When asked about future increases, Gandler said, “I do believe we have more pricing power. And in my opinion, the pricing or the packaging is really relative to what’s being charged in the traditional space, right? If you have 70 million customers paying $120 or in some satellite services, where it can go $160, $170, clearly, there’s room for us to be able to price up. That’s not to say that we will, but we do have that optionality. And we’ve been the first to price up, I think, every year in the last 3 years…it really hasn’t had much of an impact.”