Is Fubo Fighting for Its Survival With Lawsuit Against Disney, Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery’s Sports Streamer?
Fubo’s protestations over the newly announced platform sound all the more desperate because it seems to threaten Fubo’s longevity.
Fubo is more than willing to fight to live. The live TV streaming service that specializes in offering a wide range of national and regional sports networks has filed suit against Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery, seeking an injunction to stop the creation of their joint venture streaming service as well as damages from the three companies. Given the current sports streaming landscape, it’s not hard to see why Fubo is pursuing this avenue; it sees the JV streamer as an existential threat, and there’s good reason to think that Fubo might just be right.
- New JV streamer will likely cost half of Fubo’s monthly subscription price, even with Paramount+ and Peacock added.
- The platform will also carry channels Fubo doesn’t have, such as TNT and TBS.
- JV streamer will have both sports and entertainment channels since it will carry full versions of channels instead of just sports content.
Why Is Fubo So Concerned With the ESPN, Fox, WBD Sports Streaming Service?
Fubo may be the most vulnerable of all live TV streaming services when it comes to the impact that the new collaborative sports streamer could have. The proposed platform from Disney, Fox, and WBD is expressly intended to give customers access to cable sports channels including ESPN, FS1, and TNT, but for a price that’s far below that of a pay-TV subscription. The Streamable’s expert estimation is that the service’s price is likely to land in the $40-$50 per month range.
As current Fubo subscribers know, that’s around half the total of a Fubo account when regional sports network fees are included. Even if customers stack premium tiers of Paramount+ and Peacock for $11.99 per month each in order to have access to streams of CBS and NBC in addition to ABC and Fox, the combined price of that bundle would still be less than a Fubo subscription by around $20 per month.
It’s also important to point out that Fubo has not carried the Turner Networks since 2020. TNT and TBS, as well as truTV, are set to stream on the platform, giving it channels that Fubo does not currently have. That could be a big draw for many Fubo customers, and since The Streamable has confirmed that the forthcoming platform will include full livestreams of ABC, Fox, and the Turner Networks, fans will have entertainment options to watch on the service instead of only sports. When combined with the cheaper price, these factors may make the JV service especially attractive to cord-cutting sports fans.
Over the years, Fubo has struggled to keep its customers in a world of ever-rising live sports deals. While the streamer itself is not bidding on broadcast rights, the media organizations that own the channels that Fubo carries are. The higher prices for the content providers get passed on to the content distributors — cable, satellite, and live TV streaming services — and then, in turn, to the customers.
Between its base price and mandatory regional sports network (RSN) fees, Fubo’s minimum monthly subscription comes in at roughly $92, already nearing that of traditional pay-TV operators. The increasing prices and lack of Turner channels have made it difficult for the sports-focused streamer to build its customer base. While it does see a cyclical increase in the fall as sports fans prepare for football season, Fubo reported having just 1.48 million customers at the end of the third quarter of 2023; the service has not yet reported results from Q4. While that is markedly up year over year, it pails in comparison to live streaming competitors like YouTube TV which reportedly has eclipsed 8 million customers or even Hulu + Live TV which is at 4.3 million subscribers.
If this new sports-focused direct-to-consumer (DTC) platform draws even a fraction of Fubo’s customers away from the service, the company might not be able to survive.
Does Fubo’s Lawsuit Have a Chance?
It’s hard to say for sure, especially because of the many ways that the JV streaming platform disrupts the traditional TV ecosystem. Channel owners don’t often decide to set aside competition and work together and a combination like this that offers a substantial amount of sports content directly to consumers instead of through some sort of distributor is truly unprecedented.
Fubo’s argument will hinge on the idea that the three companies are creating an anti-competitive business environment. Demonstrating that the streamer’s threat to the entire pay-TV industry will be key for Fubo, but it may have a hard time making that case since the JV service won’t have the number of entertainment or live news channels that most cable plans offer. It will be a distinctly different product, and it seems clear that Fubo is the most threatened of any cable channel distributor by the service.
It also will have to contend with the fact that the service will be a significant savings for customers that are primarily interested in sports. The benefit to average consumers is often the key in anti-trust cases, making this a difficult sell for Fubo.
The speed at which Disney, Fox, and WBD are trying to bring the streamer to market is also working against Fubo. If its request for an injunction is denied, the three companies will be able to bring the service to market while the suit is working its way through the courts. That could make it an even harder dragon for Fubo to slay.
There’s no question that the JV sports streamer from Disney, WBD, and Fox represents an existential threat to Fubo. This lawsuit may not be its only means of staving off ultimate destruction at the hands of the JV streamer, but it’s understandable why Fubo may think of the lawsuit as its last, best hope for long-term survival.
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, 19 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.”