fuboTV ‘Would Love to Carry Turner’ Now that TNT, TBS Are Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery
It is difficult for a live TV streaming platform to market itself as a sports-focused service if it doesn’t carry some of the biggest sporting events available on cable TV. This is the issue that fuboTV has been facing since dropping the Turner cable networks — TNT, TBS, TruTV — in June 2020 over a carriage fee dispute.
At the time, the channels were owned by AT&T, but they are now part of Warner Bros. Discovery — a company that has been looking for ways to maximize revenue in new and creative ways for months. This has led many customers and onlookers to continue to hold out hope that the channels could return to the live streamer sooner rather than later.
With the TNets being one of the homes of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, TNT serving as one of the primary ways to watch NBA action — especially in the playoffs — and the NHL and MLB being available on the cablers as well, the channels are essential ways for sports fans to watch their favorite teams and events. Since fuboTV already carries channels from the Discovery side of the company — Discovery, HGTV, Food Network, ID — it would make sense for the two sides to come to a mutually beneficial agreement to return the Turner channels to the streamer.
So, as Fubo released its fourth-quarter 2022 earnings report on Monday, co-founder and CEO David Gandler was asked about the possibility of the channels coming back to the streamer now that WBD is in a deal-making mindset.
“We would love to carry Turner. Obviously, that would have to be accomplished at a level that we feel makes sense given our subscriber-related expense line,” the CEO said. “We’re open to doing deals, we’re open to optimizing our bundle cost to bring the best content portfolio and product that we can to our customer base. So, hopefully, that conversation will take place at some point.”
Given that his company is already in business with WBD, Gandler seems to indicate that the best way to bring the Turner channels back into the Fubo fold would be to have them bundled with the rest of their corporate sibling channels. While it is not public knowledge when the Discovery Networks’ current deal with fuboTV ends, it is feasible that the two sides could come to an agreement to extend that agreement while including the Turner channels (and potentially other WBD-owned outlets) at any point.
Will it happen in time for the NCAA Tournament and NBA and NHL playoffs? That’s unclear and probably unlikely, but it would certainly behoove Fubo to provide a full complement of sports options to its customers, especially after all of the recent price increases surrounding the introduction of Bally Sports regional sports networks (RSNs), despite the fact that those channels could be on their last legs.
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.”