• by Wayne Friedman , May 3, 2024

Against the backdrop of its legal battle with Walt Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox Corp. for its proposed streaming sports venture, sports-focused virtual pay TV network retailer FuboTV is seeing a slowdown in North American subscribers.

Paid subscribers slipped to 1.51 million from 1.62 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. But the company noted that paid subscribers were up 18% year-over-year.

Fubo’s early Friday morning stock price was down 6.5% to $1.44 a share.

In better news, year-over-year revenues were 24% higher to $402 million globally.

In addition, the company narrowed net losses to $56.3 million, from $83.4 million in the year-ago period. 

Fubo said advertising revenue was 21% higher year-over-year with subscription revenue gaining 25%. Its average revenue per user (ARPU) was up 10% to $84.54.

In February, Fubo brought a lawsuit against The Walt Disney Co., Fox Corp. and Warner Bros. Discovery for "anti-competitive practices" after the companies announced plans to start up a sports streaming joint venture.

Earlier this week FuboTV dropped Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) networks from its service, due to what it said was “above-market rates” for its network content. 

In addition to a renewal carriage deal with the company’s entertainment-focused networks  (Discovery, HGTV, Food Network and TLC, among others channels), FuboTV was also seeking new licensing rights for WBD's Turner sports networks TNT, TBS, and TruTV.