Fubo reports a better-than-expected Q1 2025, despite subscriber dips
Fubo reports a better-than-expected Q1 2025, despite subscriber dips
Due to the cyclical nature of sports programming, it’s best to compare Fubo’s numbers year-over-year, which was mostly positive for the streamer.
Fubo had reason to celebrate in the fourth quarter of 2024, as it surpassed 2 million customers after hovering just under that number for months. The live TV streaming service was back with its first quarterly earnings statement in 2025 on Friday morning, and the results show the streamer backslid a little from its success in the final three months of 2024, although that was in line with what Fubo had expected.
Key Details:
- A small dip: Coming off of the football-heacy Q4 2024, Fubo saw a subscriber dip of 216,000.
- As expected: The subscriber decline was part of Fubo’s guidance for the quarter, so it does not come as a shock to the industry or shareholders.
- It’s all cyclical: In 2025 Fubo increased its Q1 subscriber count by 313,000 over 2024.
From a subscriber standpoint, Fubo experienced a pullback in customers as compared to Q4 2024. It now numbers 1.824 million paid customers, as compared to the 2.04 million it could lay claim to in the final months of last year. However, due to the cyclical nature of sports programming, Fubo contextualizes all of its reporting in year-over-year comparisons. So, when you stack the Q1 2025 total up against the first quarter of last year, the service added 313,000 worldwide subscribers. However, Fubo now has 1.47 million North American customers, a slight decrease of 2.7% year-over-year.
On the financial side of Fubo’s ledger, things are looking a little stronger. The service’s average revenue per user (ARPU) in North America is now $85.37, an increase of $0.83 compared to the year-ago quarter. Total revenue to start 2025 was $407.9 million, up 3.5% over the corresponding quarter in 2024.
The sports-focused streaming service posted a net profit for the quarter was $188.5 million, compared to a net loss of $56.3 million for Q1 2024. This total was “positively impacted by $220 million associated with the gain on settlement of litigation,” presumably the settlement of its lawsuit against Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery over the now-abandoned launch of Venu Sports.
Fubo mostly stayed out of the news in the first quarter of the year, but it was able to begin offering regional sports channel packages without a base plan subscription requirement in early April. This allows viewers who just want to watch games on their local RSN to add them without having to pay for a bloated channel package stuffed with options they won’t watch.
The streamer also introduced a new live game alert function for fans, which will send a notification to viewers’ phones when a key moment is happening in the game their team is in. It’s yet another way Fubo is solidifying itself as a top sports streaming option.
In less happy news for Fubo, the Department of Justice has announced that it will investigate the merger of the service with Hulu + Live TV. Officials from both sides of the political spectrum have questions about the combination and its potential to violate antitrust laws, which is somewhat ironic given those are the grounds under which Fubo tried to shut down the Venu Sports joint venture Hulu’s parent company Disney was involved in.
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).