Fubo TV has been growing its offerings in a big way over the past few years. Its latest headline grabbing move was the addition of Disney’s lineup of channels including the Disney Channel, ESPN and ESPN2. But the headline today from What To Watch is that Disney owns some of fubo TV. Disney in now owns 6,630,012 shares in FaceBank Group, which owns FuboTV via acquired stake as part of their deal for 21st Century Fox. That cannot be ignored. Because Disney has more in the streaming game than Disney+. It also controls Hulu and Hulu with Live TV. The latter competes directly with fubo TV in the cable replacement space.
The move could signal an aggressive move by Disney to take a player off the map at a time when streaming is growing faster than ever. But the fastest growing sectors in streaming are AVOD (services like Pluto TV). There is some thinking in the industry that the enthusiasm for cable replacement services is waining as the prices have gone up. It is possible that the best way to grow the number with any service is to pick up subscribers directly from a competitor. As of press time fubo had no comment on the matter.
As of March 31, 2020, FuboTV had some 287,316 paid subscribers. That was down from 315,789 as of Dec. 31, 2019.
