NEW YORK—As part of its Q3 2021 earnings announcements, fuboTV Inc. said it has surpassed the 1 million sub count milestone and announced two key acquisitions.
In what the virtual MVPD is calling “a significant milestone” in its global expansion plans, fuboTV has entered into a binding agreement to acquire France’s number one live TV streaming company, Molotov SAS for €164.3 million (approximately $190 million using the foreign currency exchange rate as of November 8, 2021).
The acquisition is expected to close sometime during the first quarter of 2022.
The virtual MVPD also announced that as part of their strategy of creating a new category of interactive sports and entertainment television, they are acquiring Edisn.ai to "enhance our AI-driven interactive experiences, personalization and platform stability."
At a time when some vMVPDs have seen sluggish sub growth, fubo TV also reported significant growth in subscribers and revenue during Q3 2021 compared to a year earlier.
In a letter to shareholders, CEO David Gandler and executive chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr reported that “in the quarter, we delivered triple-digit year-over-year growth in total paid subscribers (up 108% to 944,605), total revenue (up 156% to $156.7 million) and advertising revenue (up 147% to $18.6 million). Additionally, we added 262,884 net subscribers in the third quarter - more subscribers than added throughout all of 2020. Viewership also reached record highs, with fuboTV customers streaming 284 million hours of content during the quarter, a 113% increase year-over-year.”
Since the end of Q3, the company also reported that it had passed the 1 million sub mark.
The Molotov SAS transaction will speed up fuboTV’s global expansion efforts by allowing fuboTV to leverage Molotov’s unique direct-to-consumer live TV streaming service and its advertising video-on-demand (AVOD) platform, Mango, which combined total nearly four million monthly active users in France (September 2021), fuboTV said.
The Molotov streaming platform was designed to be easily localized for new markets and languages, facilitating quick and efficient launches in additional countries, the vMVPD also noted.
Molotov also brings to fuboTV’s international business a freemium model which leverages a free tier to drive user growth and upsell customers to premium add-on channel packages. fuboTV plans to leverage Molotov’s strategy and low-cost marketing funnel for international growth while implementing fuboTV’s marketing technology to accelerate Molotov subscriptions.
Molotov will continue to be based in Paris and led by JeanDavid Blanc, its co-founder. Blanc has also been named president, Molotov.
Molotov’s approximately 100 employees will remain with the Company and fuboTV plans to further expand the product and engineering team in Paris. Molotov was founded in 2015 by Blanc (founder of AlloCiné) and Pierre Lescure (co-founder of Canal+).
“Molotov has set the benchmark for ad-supported and subscription streaming platforms in Europe,” said David Gandler, co-founder and CEO, fuboTV. “We believe this strategic asset will help accelerate our goal of achieving global scale and operating leverage as we continue to improve and innovate on our live, interactive streaming TV experience for sports fans and their families.”
fuboTV currently operates in the U.S. and Canada and was the first U.S. virtual MVPD to enter Europe with its 2018 launch in Spain. Molotov operates in France, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Cameroon and expects to launch soon in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Company also operates in Morocco through a partnership with Maroc telecom.
