Fubo Plans Free Tier, Sees 'Duel to the Death' With Sports Streaming JV

Fubo will launch a free tier later this year, and it sees the streaming platform turning profitable in 2025. In a call Friday with analysts as Fubo announced its Q4 2023 financial results, CEO David Gandler said the company was in "a duel to the death" with the forthcoming ESPN/Fox/Warner Bros. Discovery sports streaming joint venture (see 2402070006). Fubo fielded numerous analyst questions during the call about its lawsuit against the JV (see 2402210007). Gandler called the JV "just the latest example of the sports cartels' attempt to block and steal Fubo's vision of what a sports streaming bundle should look like, resulting in billions of dollars in damages to our business." The defendants' "pernicious contractual terms and other anticompetitive practices [are] borderline racketeering," he said, adding that those programmers have charged Fubo 30% to 50% more for content than other distributors, while also forcing it to take content it doesn't want. He said the forthcoming free tier will include the nearly 160 free, ad-supported channels the streamer has launched since 2022. Fubo reported Q4 2023 revenue of $401 million, up from $312 million a year earlier, and 1.54 million North American subscribers, an increase from 1.4 million in Q4 2022.