FuboTV
FuboTV, Inc. and its subsidiary FuboTV Media, Inc., which operates as FuboTV or Fubo, is an American over-the-top sports streaming television service that serves customers in Canada, Spain, and the United States. The service focuses primarily on channels that distribute live sports. Depending on the country it is accessed in, channels offered by Fubo include access to the Premier League, NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, MLS, CPL, and international football, as well as news, network television series, and movies. FuboTV, Inc. also operates the live TV streaming service Molotov in France.
Based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States, FuboTV was launched on January 1, 2015, as a soccer streaming service. Fubo changed to an all-sports service in 2017, and then to a virtual multichannel video programming distributor model. As a vMVPD, Fubo still markets itself as a sports-first service, but it has since expanded its programming to include channels that fall under other genres, including ones with reality shows, premium movies and cable news.
In the United States, Fubo offers several packages with different channel lineups, including a base package of over 100 linear content channels, which also include free content streams that are found on competing services like YouTube TV. A number of add-on packages are also available for viewers who want more programming options, including a sports-only bundle, Spanish-language content, premium movie networks or additional features.
On January 6, 2025, the Walt Disney Company announced its intent to acquire a 70% stake in Fubo, who will merge with Hulu's live TV service. The combined company will remain public, but will be controlled by Disney and will be a sister service to Disney+, ESPN+, and the aforementioned Hulu. The merger will take 12 to 18 months according to Disney and Fubo, meaning that the merger will be set to be completed between January 2026 and July 2026. It is unknown if Disney will acquire Paramount's undisclosed stake. On July 28, 2025, the merger was rescheduled to between October 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026. This accelerated the closing from what was initially believed to be anytime between January 1, 2026 and June 30, 2026. On September 30, 2025, the merger of Fubo and Hulu + Live TV was approved by its shareholders. The merger was completed on October 29, 2025., the company says the newly combined Fubo and The Walt Disney Company’s Hulu + Live TV business has nearly 6 million subscribers in North America. Fubo itself reported having 1.63 million paid subscribers in North America.
History
Early years
FuboTV was co-founded in January 2015 by David Gandler, Alberto Horihuela, and Sung Ho Choi. At launch, FuboTV cost $7 per month and offered livestreams from soccer-centric channels. In early 2017, Fubo pivoted to become a broader streaming service, adding entertainment and news programming in addition to soccer and sports programming from the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL. During its first five years, investors in FuboTV included AMC Networks, Luminari Capital, Northzone, Sky, and Scripps Networks Interactive. FuboTV was named to Forbes’ Next Billion-Dollar Startups list in 2019.According to Fast Company, FuboTV still calls itself "sports-first", but instead of being "the Netflix of soccer", it is pitching itself as a direct competitor to cable television and live-streaming bundles such as Sling TV and AT&T TV. FuboTV was the first live-TV streaming service to support 4K HDR video, and was the first to adopt an industry standard for handling sports blackouts. In December 2018, Fubo announced that it was going to expand into Spain.
On February 20, 2019, it was announced that channels from Viacom networks would be added on April 30, 2019, though these networks do not feature sports content. ViacomCBS does own an undisclosed stake in FuboTV, and future ViacomCBS deals will also include CBS carriage. On March 5, 2019, FuboTV expanded its 4K support to the Big Ten Network. In May 2019, FuboTV and FanDuel partnered to integrate sports betting data on the live TV streaming service. The deal included carriage of FanDuel's horse racing networks, TVG and TVG2. On June 19, 2019, FuboTV announced that it will be adding the Discovery Networks, joining the line up of Scripps Networks that were acquired by Discovery.
2020
ViacomCBS channels launched on FuboTV in Spain in 2020. On January 1, 2020, FuboTV dropped the Fox Sports Networks, citing increasing carriage costs after the acquisition of the channels by the Sinclair Broadcast Group. FuboTV launched the NHL Network on March 9, 2020, with plans to add the MLB Network and MLB Strike Zone, allowing it to have all four professional sports league networks on its platform.On March 23, 2020, fuboTV announced it would merge with FaceBank Group, a publicly listed virtual entertainment technology company founded by media technology entrepreneur John Textor, via a reverse triangular merger. The new company was named fuboTV Inc. to be led by original fuboTV CEO David Gandler. The merger closed on April 2, 2020. According to the article, fuboTV plans to leverage Facebank's IP portfolio to create new streaming experiences for consumers and also expand internationally. FaceBank is traded on the OTC exchange and, following the merger, Gandler noted the company plans to uplist to a major stock exchange. Following its merger with FaceBank Group, FuboTV began trading on the OTC under the ticker symbol FUBO. In the months following the merger, John Textor resigned his post as Executive Chairman, and the company named former Warner Music Group Chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr. as Executive Chairman of the Board. Other directors, such as early Spotify investor Par-Jorgen Parson and venture capitalist Daniel Leff were also named to the Board. All three were early investors in FuboTV.
In June 2020, FuboTV announced a long-awaited deal with Disney Media Networks to bring ESPN Inc., and Walt Disney Television to the sports-focused streaming service sometime in the summer. The deal was to make FuboTV a "force in sports streaming," according to Fortune. It would go live on August 1. On July 1, 2020, FuboTV dropped WarnerMedia networks, including Cartoon Network, CNN, TBS and TNT.
On September 15, 2020, FuboTV said it expected to close 2020 with 410,000–420,000 subscribers as a result of the return of sports during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company also announced it was approved to list on the New York Stock Exchange "conditional upon successful pricing of this offering, under the ticker symbol FUBO." On October 7, 2020, fuboTV completed its initial public offering as a New York Stock Exchange company, raising roughly $183 million in proceeds. FuboTV began trading on the NYSE under the ticker symbol "FUBO" on October 8, 2020, as fuboTV shares jumped 10% in their market debut.
FuboTV delivered what it said was record revenue and subscriber numbers during the third quarter of 2020. The company also announced its plans to enter the online sports wagering market with details to be announced. In December 2020, FuboTV acquired Balto Sports, which owns contest automation software. The company said the acquisition marked the first step of its online wagering strategy, which will start with free to play games and then expand into wagering integrated with its live streaming video. FuboTV added more premium entertainment with the launch of EPIX and STARZ channels in December 2020. It also reached an agreement with Nexstar Media Group to begin carrying WGN America in January 2021.
2021
In January, FuboTV announced more details of its expansion into online sports wagering. With the December 2020 Balto Sports acquisition, the company said it plans to launch a free to play gaming app by the summer of 2021. The app will be available to all consumers nationwide, whether they are FuboTV subscribers or not. The company also said it plans to integrate free gaming into the FuboTV platform. Additionally, FuboTV announced it intends to acquire sports gaming company Vigtory and will launch its own sportsbook before the end of the year. With the Vigtory acquisition, FuboTV will also receive Vigtory's pipeline of market access deals, including a completed agreement with Iowa through Casino Queen. Like free gaming, the company said it plans to launch the sportsbook as an app first before integrating it into the FuboTV user experience. FuboTV CEO told The Wall Street Journal he expects sports wagering to not only generate more revenue for FuboTV but also make it more likely that customers will pay closer attention to sports and tune in more often.In its fourth quarter 2020 earnings results reported in March 2021, FuboTV said it exceeded $100 million in quarterly revenue for the first time. Also during its 2020 earnings report, FuboTV said it would launch free-to-play predictive gaming in the third quarter 2021. FuboTV also announced it closed the previously announced Vigtory acquisition and had established Fubo Gaming to oversee its entry into online sports wagering. Fubo Gaming is expected to launch Fubo Sportsbook in the fourth quarter 2021. Fubo also announced it signed agreements with the MLB and NBA to become an Authorized Gaming Operator of each league. These agreements will provide access to official data and include league marks and logos within Fubo Sportsbook once it is rolled out.
FuboTV announced in May 2021 that the first quarter was its strongest in its history, delivering $119.7 million in revenue, an increase of 135% year-over-year, and growing total subscribers to 590,430, up 105% year-over-year. CEO David Gandler called the quarter an "inflection point" for FuboTV as it was the first time the company grew revenue and subscribers sequentially in any first quarter despite seasonality trends.
On June 1, Fast Company reported FuboTV would begin beta testing predictive, free-to-play games and a live stats feature called FanView, both integrated into its streaming video. The beta test would begin during FuboTV's exclusive streams of the South American CONMEBOL 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches that month. The company said they plan to officially launch free gaming timed to the NFL season. FuboTV also said it expects gaming to be an engagement driver and noted it is the first step on its gaming roadmap, which will include the launch of Fubo Sportsbook later in 2021. On June 30, 2021, FuboTV dropped services from A&E Networks, among them included History, A&E and Lifetime.
FuboTV was added to the Russell 2000 Index at the conclusion of the 2021 Russell indexes annual reconstitution in June 2021. In November, FuboTV said that it had reached the one million subscriber mark.
FuboTV launched Fubo Sportsbook, a mobile wagering app integrated with fuboTV's live TV streaming platform, on November 3. The company launched the app in Iowa and said more states are to follow. The company announced they had reached one million subscribers on their third quarter 2021 earnings call. FuboTV also announced it had signed an agreement to acquire France's leading live TV streaming platform, Molotov TV, to fuel its international expansion along with Indian AI startup edisn.ai.