Sports-centric streaming service Fubo typically struggles in the off-season of popular sports like football and basketball, and the second financial quarter (Q2) of 2024 was no exception.
On Tuesday, the company revealed its subscriber count in North America fell to 1.45 million, reflecting a sequential dip of 60,000 paid customers compared to the first quarter (Q1) of the year. Fubo said the count was up 24 percent on a year-over basis, suggesting its offerings of general entertainment, movies and free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels were enough to keep some customers paying for the product over the long-term. Fubo prefers to use year-over metrics because of the “seasonality of sports content,” the company said in a statement.
Average revenue per user (ARPU), a key metric followed by investors, climbed to $85.69 during Q2, or $1.15 higher on a sequential basis. ARPU was stimulated by higher advertising revenue that came in against certain channels where Fubo is allowed to dynamically insert its own inventory, including FAST channels that it operates or distributes on Fubo and other platforms.
Subscriber revenue continues to be the largest financial driver for Fubo, with the company earning $362.94 million from ads, around 25 percent more than it earned during Q2 2023. Advertising revenue was nearly 14 percent higher on a year-over basis, clocking in at $26.29 million for the quarter.
“Fubo continues to make marked progress in scaling our strong core business while achieving our broader strategic goals,” said Edgar Bronfman, Jr., the executive chairman at Fubo. “We’re carefully balancing our 2025 profitability target while strategically and cost-effectively investing in subscriber growth, cutting-edge technology, new product features and engaging content. We have raised our full year 2024 guidance in North America, which reflects our continued confidence in our sports entertainment streaming business.”
That guidance now says Fubo is expected to cultivate around 1.72 million to 1.74 million paid subscribers by the end of the year, which will help it earn around $1.57 billion to $1.59 billion.
The growth is expected despite challenges to Fubo’s position in the streaming sports market, brought on by a potential new competitor called Venu Sports, which is being developed through a joint venture between Fox Corporation, the Walt Disney Company’s ESPN and Warner Bros Discovery’s (WBD) TNT Sports.
The service, expected to launch later this month for less than $50, will offer live broadcast and cable networks like ABC, Fox, ESPN, Fox Sports 1, TBS, TNT and Tru TV, without other entertainment and news channels that distributors like Fubo are typically forced to carry.
Fubo is suing the three broadcasters — two of which, Fox and Disney, are among its current programming partners — arguing Venu Sports is anticompetitive because it benefits from sweetheart deals cut with the broadcasters who hold a financial and operative interest in the service.
