The sports streaming platform FuboTV — which is battling to stop a rival Disney, Warners and Fox sports streaming joint venture in the works — reported it ended the first quarter with 1.51 million paid subscribers in North America, down from 1.61 million at the end of the fourth quarter of 2023.
The streamer, led by CEO David Gandler, said live sports tend to be lighter in the first quarter, compared with offerings in the back half of the year like college football and NFL seasons and the second half of the MLB season. Parent Fubo, unveiling its latest earnings Friday, shrunk its first-quarter loss attributable to shareholders to $56.1 million, against a year-earlier $83.6 million, as revenue grew 24 percent to $394 million.
The loss per share was 19 cents, compared to a per-share loss of 37 cents in the first quarter of 2023. Subscription revenue came to $373.7 million, compared to a year-earlier $300.8 million, while advertising revenue at $27.4 million rose from $22.7 million in the prior year.
Fubo has brought a lawsuit against The Walt Disney Co., Fox Corp. and Warner Bros. Discovery to possibly block a sports streaming joint venture the media giants have unveiled from getting off the ground.
“We continue to believe in the merits of our lawsuit, and thank those who have publicly supported us, such as DirecTV and Dish. We remain steadfast in our fight to level the playing field of the sports streaming industry since, as alleged in our court filings, we believe the launch of the joint venture (a collaboration to introduce a sports-only streaming service) controlled by these parties could cause irreparable harm to Fubo and to consumers,” the company said in a shareholders letter Friday.
Rival sports streamer Fubo claims it has been forced to carry dozens of pricey, non-sports channels as a condition of licensing sports rights from the companies in a scheme to stifle competition.
