It looks like losses in the satellite TV world may be adding to the put at fubo TV. The company closed its strongest fourth quarter and year in its history, topping $100 million in quarterly revenue for the first time ($105.1 million actual). fuboTV ended 2020 with 547,880 paid subscribers, including 92,800 net subscriber additions in the fourth quarter.
Complete fourth quarter and full-year 2020 results are detailed in fuboTV’s shareholder letter available on the company’s IR site.
“fuboTV’s fourth-quarter closed our strongest fiscal year to date,” said David Gandler, co-founder and CEO, fuboTV. “Our record 547,880 paid subscribers streamed more sports, news, and entertainment content than ever before. Building on this quarter and year, we remain focused on continued innovation and are excited about our growth opportunities for 2021, including the ongoing expansion of our advertising business and the development of our own sportsbook.”
fubo TV’s entry into sports betting is part of a larger strategy that has also involved updating the look and feel of the app and adding content partners like ESPN.
“Our goal for 2021 and beyond is to develop fuboTV into a new kind of media company that combines both innovative streaming video and sports wagering,” said Edgar Bronfman Jr., executive chairman, fuboTV. “We intend to deliver leading sports, news and entertainment content to a growing subscriber base that transcends the industry’s current virtual MVPD model, and are excited about our ability to capitalize on the future market opportunity.”
The numbers say that the strategy has been working so far. Even before the much talked about interactive sports wagering comes aboard later this year the company reported a big jump in overall profits from 146.5 Million in 2019 to 268.8 Million in 2020. Things are certainly trending in the right direction for fubo TV. This gain shows tremendous momentum for the company that has been quickly expanding from a sports service to an all-around offering. 2020 profits more than doubled the numbers from 2018 which topped out at 74.8 million.
Additionally, the company announced more details of its expansion into wagering. fuboTV will launch free-to-play predictive games in Q3 and its owned and operated fubo Sportsbook in Q4. In order to build the betting service fubo TV has acquired sports betting and interactive gaming company Vigtory.
The company has also closed agreements with the NBA and MLB to become an Authorized Gaming Operator of each league. The sports betting and interactive programming that the company is planning to weave into the viewing experience will be an industry first and could pull viewers who enjoy sports gambling to the service because of that feature on its own. Between free-to-play games during live contests and betting through the service fubo TV may well carve out a very special place in the TV industry.
The company reported that subscription revenue increased 91% YoY to $91.4 million along with hours of content streamed jumping 61%.
Don’t bet against fubo TV.
