David Gandler, CEO of Fubo, in a conversation with SportsPro said that he believes the FTC should investigate Google. He didn’t make clear whether that was because of Google’s alleged status as a monopoly, anti-competitive practices from the tech giant, search result manipulation or some other combination of violations of FTC anti-trust and consumer protection standards.
“It’s very difficult for someone to understand who’s not involved, how could it be that a company with 300 at the time, 300 employees, could move this quickly,” said Gandler, “and also compete with companies I believe the Federal Trade Commission should look into, companies like Google… that are making life extremely difficult for companies like ours to continue to grow.”
These aren’t the first monopolistic claims against Google. In October of 2020, the Justice Department sued Google for allegedly violating anti-trust laws. 36 states and the capital sued Google over their Play Store for alleged monopolistic behavior. And the DOJ brought a second anti-trust suit against Google this year for their advertising business. But so far none of those lawsuits have centered around YouTube TV, Fubo’s competitor.
Fubo’s problems may run deeper than anti-trust allegations, though. As a sports-first platform, they lack both the NBA on TNT and the MLB on TBS. And the gambling technology they’ve invested heavily in is only available in Iowa as of yet. Fubo may be able to leverage their newly acquired one million subscribers to push their gambling tech through the rest of the United States and negotiate with the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball. And if Google or any other tech or streaming giant stands in the way of that expansion illegally, Fubo could have a strong case in court.
Gandler had a positive outlook overall of his company’s place in the competitive marketplace. “This is a company that executives quite well. It executes well above its weight class. And all of the things that I’ve been saying are coming to fruition relatively quickly,” said the CEO. “And so I think Fubo has its own spectrum, its own highway that we’re on.” The question then is, have any larger companies left silent roadblocks for firms like Fubo to struggle past.
Fubo
Fubo is a live TV streaming service with about 90 channels for $74.99/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 $85.98/month, after adding in their RSN Fee. Fubo was previously known as “fuboTV.”