Fubo’s skinny bundle hopes to launch by football season
Fubo’s skinny bundle hopes to launch by football season
The live TV service is working hard to line up the programming needed to launch a sports-focused skinny channel package.
Fubo is ready to move into the future. The sports-focused live TV streaming service isn’t blind to the current pay-TV environment. Viewers are continuing to leave behind bloated channel packages that have climbed to over $100 per month in price, which creates an unprecedented growth opportunity for more focused channel offerings at a lower price point. Fubo has been working on its own skinny channel bundle, and according to CEO David Gandler, the streamer wants to launch that package before the start of the 2025 NFL and college football seasons.
Key Details:
- Eye on the prize: Fubo remains committed to launching its skinny channel bundle this year.
- Negotiations: The company is now focused on getting non-Disney programming for its bundle.
- Our lips are sealed: Gandler refused to get into details about the merger of Hulu + Live TV and Fubo.
Speaking with analysts during Fubo’s quarterly earnings call on Friday, Gandler said that his streaming service is “very focused” on getting its sports-centric skinny channel bundle to market on time. That bundle will include ABC, ESPN, and other Disney-owned sports properties, but Fubo is still working to get other channel owners to participate at a price that makes sense for all sides. The Fubo and Disney partnership is part of the deal that will see Hulu + Live TV become 70% owner of Fubo, should the acquisition pass governmental and regulatory oversight.
“We’ve made it very clear that it has to be on acceptable terms at a fair market price with the same flexibility as other distributors,” Gandler said of negotiations with non-Disney partners. “So, that will be our focus in the short term, and we look forward to providing you more information as we move forward on that front.”
Fubo’s new service will offer both sports and broadcast TV options, but as Gandler’s comments suggest, it’s not immediately clear what channels outside of the Disney-owned options will be available there. There’s no doubt Fubo would like to get CBS, Fox, and NBC into the bundle, as they are key NFL and college football rights owners, among other sports.
DIRECTV was the first to bring a sports-focused skinny channel bundle to market when it launched the MySports Pack in January. This channel offering includes ABC, Fox, and NBC, along with ESPN, TNT, FS1, and other sports-related channels for $70 per month. The package includes over 20 channels total, as well as an ESPN+ subscription at no extra charge.
Fubo is hoping its own skinny bundle will be able to effectively compete with DIRECTV’s MySports package. There are other big moves in Fubo’s future as well; while Gandler declined to dig into specifics on the Hulu deal, the transition to being primarily owned by Disney should lead to some fairly substantive changes for Fubo.
The Streamable will continue to provide updates about Fubo’s new skinny channel package as soon as they become available. The launch of a new, smaller channel bundle is an indication that the live TV streaming marketplace is changing in major ways, as viewers tell companies they’ll no longer pay for inflated plans that offer too many channels customers don’t want to watch.
Fubo
Fubo is a live TV streaming service offering a robust lineup of approximately 150 premier channels, with plans starting at $63.99 per month. This entry-level package provides access to local broadcast affiliates 18 of the leading 35 cable channels channels, and valuable regional sports networks (RSNs).