FuboTV Price Increases?

Are FuboTV Price Increases Coming?

November 16, 2021

November 16, 2021

Last week, fuboTV's CEO went on record stating, "If anyone can afford to raise prices on consumers, It's fubo." That's a bad sign for fuboTV customers, but it does beg the question: Just how high could fuboTV prices go from here?

Streamer's Spotlight: FuboTV Price Increase?

In a CNBC tech spot this week, fuboTV CEO David Gandler explained, "We’re aggregating all of the most expensive sports content in the world...96% of our total subscriber base watch(es) sports. In the cable ecosystem, about 30% of customers watch sports. So when you raise prices due to sports acquisitions, what happens is the 70% that don’t watch sports typically don’t want to pay. So fubo has a high-quality premium subscriber base. We have pricing power.”

Long story short: fuboTV is subtly suggesting that it can and may raise prices, particularly as a hedge against its decreasing subscriber counts.

1. Isn't fuboTV Already Pricey?

Yes and no. FuboTV's starting price for its English-language channel packages is $64.99 per month for 111 channels. For comparison, Hulu Live TV and YouTube TV both cost $64.99 per month, as well. However, both of these services have fewer channels than the fuboTV starting package and fewer sports networks as well.

Where fuboTV differs is in having more channel packages than Hulu and YouTube. Its pricing goes up to $79.99 per month for 157 channels, or nearly twice as many channels as Hulu and YouTube TV offer, but with only a marginal increase in the price compared to the starter package.

2. How High Could Prices Go?

There's a big question mark on that one. If fuboTV raises prices, it's likely to do so in $5 or $10 increments. As such, if the company does raise prices in the near future (early 2022, for example), subscribers could expect to see the baseline price for the Starter package shoot up to $69.99 per month. That starts putting it in similar pricing to DirecTV Stream, but with more available channels per package.

3. Would Other Price Increases Follow?

We've done research on price increases previously. When one company raises prices, its competitors tend to sit back and wait to see what impact those price increases have on its business. If nothing bad happens in the short term, most competitors will edge their prices up as well.

If fuboTV does raise prices, it could be the incentive other providers were looking for to edge their prices up, as well.

This Week's Streaming Guide

1. Marvel's 'Hit-Monkey' Comes to Hulu

One of the oddest Marvel comics characters comes to the small screen this week on Tuesday (Nov. 16) -

  2. Tiger King Returns to Netflix for Season 2 

Somehow, there's more. But we're here for it. Watch Tiger King Season 2 starting Wednesday (Nov. 17) -

  3. 'Star Trek: Discovery' Returns for Season 4 

Captain Burnham's plan to save the universe continues this Thursday (Nov. 19). -

4. HBO Max Goes Bold with 'The Sex Lives of College Girls'

Could this new comedy from Mindy Kaling be the next 'Sex and the City'? The only way to know is to watch, this Thursday (Nov. 19) on HBO Max. -

News and Industry Developments

1. FuboTV Purchase of Molotov Indicates International Expansion Plans

Molotov is a French streaming starting that will help fuboTV expand its reach faster. -

2. Disney+ Desperately Needs Another Hit

The service has already had some major success, but it needs the next big thing to keep the momentum going. -

3. Disney+ Needs More Than Star Wars and Marvel

As excellent as these IPs are right now, the company needs to diversify. -

4. Streaming Services Are Running Out of Americans

America remains the biggest market for streaming, but subscribers are getting all tapped out. -

Reply

or to participate.