Virtual MVPD Fubo saw a hit to advertising revenue in the first quarter of 2025, primarily impacted by the continued loss of channels from Warner Bros. Discovery and TelevisaUnivision on its streaming pay TV platform.
Fubo reported Q1 ad revenue of $22.5 million, down 17% year-over-year, which executives on Friday’s earnings call largely attributed to previously dropping WBD and TVU networks when the sides couldn’t reach new carriage terms. Fubo CEO and Co-founder David Gandler said not having those networks meant losing ad insertable hours.
Normalizing for Q1, he said advertising would’ve been up on a year-over-year basis and that Q2 is looking a little better than the first three months of 2025.
Fubo also saw impacts on subscribers, reporting 1.47 million paid North American customers as of the end of March, down 2.7% yoy but just ahead of the vMVPD’s own guidance of 1.46 million for the period. The sub count as of Q1 is also a decline from the 1.67 million North American subscribers Fubo had at the end of 2024. Still, Gandler said it was pleased with Q1 results, which “came against a typically lighter first quarter sports calendar and a broader backdrop of economic uncertainty.”
WBD channels, such as Discovery, HGTV, Food Network and TLC, among others, left the Fubo platform in Q2 last year. TelevisaUnivision, meanwhile, had channels dropped in late December. As a result, Fubo reduced the price of its Spanish-language Latino package. The Spanish-language programmer on its own earnings call last week indicated it was open to continue negotiations to restore channels to Fubo, and executives at the vMVPD on Friday indicated a similar sentiment.
Fubo CFO John Janedis noted that while there’s no update to share, Fubo has had other content that it dropped and brought back. The finance chief noted he thinks Fubo is “certainly open to those discussions with acceptable terms,” but added that it lowered the price on its Latino pay TV package sans TelevisaUnivision channels and is “seeing solid interest.”
Impacts on subscribers from the loss of TVU networks will continue into Q2 but are expected to lessen and become more modest as time goes on.
For Q2, Fubo is guiding for North American subscribers of 1.225 million to 1.255 million, or a 14% yoy decline at the midpoint and revenue of $340 million to $350 million – forecasts which include continued impact from the exit of TelevisaUnivision channels.
In terms of ads on Fubo, Janedis commented positively on uptake and interest by advertisers of new ad formats - and interactive in particular - that Fubo has launched in the past few quarters, saying its “really starting to see some good traction.”
Interactive ads on Fubo are up 37% yoy, per Janedis, adding “interest is actually accelerating.”
He acknowledged that the sales cycle has taken longer than the company would’ve expected initially, but noted very strong interest in from a variety of parties in a new format it just launched. The CFO also said Fubo likes what it’s seeing in terms of advertiser interest as budgets potentially shrink, including for pause and marquee ads, among other formats.
While subscribers and advertising dipped in Q1, Fubo still reported 3.5% yoy growth for total North American revenue, which reached $407.9 million in the period. It also improved profitability metrics and remains focused on the goal of achieving profitability in 2025. Fubo reported net income of $188 million for the period, which included a $220 million gain from the litigation settlement payment from Disney. The company’s Q1 Adjusted EBITDA loss of $1.4 million represents a $37 million improvement year-over-year.
Negotiating non-Disney networks for skinny sports bundle
On the call executives also emphasized Fubo’s continued intent and work to release skinny bundles, including a news and sports bundle, as it aims to provide a variety of pay TV options priced at different points along the demand curve.
Disney networks are expected to be part of that skinny bundle as Fubo is in the process of a deal to be acquired by the media company and combine with competing vMVPD Hulu + Live – in an agreement that also settled Fubo antitrust litigation against Disney and JV partners on the now defunct Venu Sports initiative.
That said, it needs more than Disney for its forthcoming sports and news pay TV service, and Gandler said the team is very focused short-term on working to secure content from non-Disney programmers for the skinny bundle service that it aims to debut this fall – with the same flexibility offered ot other distributors.
“It is critical for Fubo subscribers that we are able to negotiate content licensing agreements at fair rates and terms,” Gandler said. Our goal remains to launch the service for the fall sports season.”
It didn’t share much more in terms on how discussions with non-Disney content partners are going, but the CEO noted that it started offering standalone services already and early indications “create a situation for us where we feel very comfortable that there's probably a growth opportunity headed into the fall.”
He also suggested the company is pleased to see others in the industry launch skinnier and genre-based pay TV packages (such as DirecTV and Comcast)– something Fubo has desired to do and where he said availability of multiple streaming options benefits all consumers.
Execs also reiterated the view that a Hulu + Live TV and Fubo combo will bring the company more scale and increase competition, but did not disclose more related to progress of the transaction.
“We remain excited about our agreement with the Walt Disney Company to combine Fubo with Hulu + Live TV and the potential to increase competition and consumer choice in the pay TV space,” Gandler said in opening remarks Friday. “We continue to work through the regulatory process and look forward to sharing more information when we are able.”