fuboTV Reports 287K Paid Subscribers, Down From 316K at End of 2019

fuboTV disclosed subscriber metrics for the first quarter, which saw a drop of ~30K subscribers from year’s end, leaving them with 287,316 subscribers at the end of the first quarter. The company says that this is the result of “seasonality of sports content,” which saw over 60% of their gross paid subscribers coming in the second half of the year.

The company saw revenue increase to $51 million in the first quarter (+78%), with more than 90% of that coming from subscription revenue. Monthly active users watched 120 hours per month in the quarter, up 52% from a year ago.

fuboTV says they “continue to actively progress in discussions for listing on a major stock exchange in the coming months.” The company recently added $46 million in equity funding, including $20 million from Credit Suisse Capital.

With an increase in Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) up to $54.16, the company said they were gross margin profitable for the first time. Their average contribution margin was 3% in the first quarter, up from -13.6% loss the year prior. This also had to do with a change in their channel lineup, which saw them drop Fox Sports RSNs, FX, FXX and Nat Geo at the beginning of the quarter.

David Gandler, fuboTV CEO:

fuboTV had an extremely productive Q1, despite a complete shutdown of sports, and we have made several significant recent announcements that highlight the competitive strength of our company and further differentiate us in the marketplace. While we expect that the COVID-19 pandemic will have lasting effects on consumer behavior and live television viewing, vMVPDs are also a more affordable alternative to pay TV, which, we believe, in this current economic climate, further accelerates adoption. We believe we are well positioned as a leader in the industry.

The company should see a jump in ARPU in the second half the year, as a result of their recently announced price hike to $59.99 a month. That will come with the added cost of bringing on Disney-owned networks. At the same time, the Live TV Streaming Service did drop WarnerMedia-owned networks like CNN, TNT, TBS and Cartoon Network.

fuboTV still has a fraction of the subscribers of other Live TV Streaming Services. Hulu Live TV is the largest at 3.3 million subscribers, which is ahead of of Sling TV’s 2.3 million subscribers and YouTube TV’s 2 million users. They have been gaining share on AT&T TV NOW, which lost an additional 138,000 subscribers in the first quarter, leaving them with 788K subscribers.