• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, July 12, 2019

Livestreaming service FuboTV reports that its users collectively viewed more than 3 billion minutes of programming during the second quarter, representing a nearly 200% increase over Q2 2018.

In June, average per-subscriber viewing hours across all Fubo platforms (connected TVs, mobile, web) saw a 137% year-over-year increase, according to the company. Service users who have paid subscriptions to both its Standard and Extra packages (spanning most major channels) spent 142 hours on the platform in June, on average.

Nearly 90% of hours watched during the month were on connected TVs — up from 67% in June 2018 — and per-subscriber hours spent on CTVs rose by 195% versus last June. Those subscribed to both paid packages watched 155 hours on CTVs, on average, in the month.

Fubo — which has continued to add non-sports content since its launch as a soccer channel in 2015 — reports that entertainment edged out sports as the most-watched content during June. Entertainment accounted for 42% of total viewing (up from 20% last June), with sports at 38%.

Still, the month’s gain was “almost certainly due in no small part to the fact that the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was mostly played in June,” and that Fubo TV is the only virtual MVPD streaming service in the United States to stream games and other content in 4K resolution, notes Cordcutters.com’s Phil Nickinson.

“The trick for Fubo, then, will be to not bleed too many subscribers in the ensuing months,” he adds. “It's no secret that folks will take advantage of the free trial periods and then split when things are over. That's even more of a thing in terms of appointment television like sporting events, and even more so when you throw in that Fubo's the only one in the U.S. to do 4K resolutions. And that's not a slight on Fubo, nor is it on the consumers. We shouldn't be paying for what we're not using.”

Fubo also soft-launched an ad-supported, free-to-consumer streaming network for U.S. sports fans last month.

On the advertising front, Fubo launched dynamic ad insertion in January 2018, in time for that year’s Olympics and Super Bowl.

In May 2019, the company hired Chris Flatley away from Dish’s Sling TV to head up its ad sales.