FuboTV's stock price skyrocketed over 176%! Partnering with Disney, it will merge live TV streaming services

On Monday Eastern Time, Bloomberg cited sources familiar with the matter stating that Disney is about to announce a partnership agreement with sports streaming service FuboTV.

This agreement will merge Disney's streaming service Hulu + Live TV with FuboTV to form a new video company MVPD (multichannel video programming distributor). This news is expected to be officially announced on Monday morning Eastern Time.

According to the terms of the agreement, FuboTV will receive $220 million in cash from Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery.

As a result of this news, FuboTV's stock price soared over 220% in pre-market trading on Monday, and at one point during early trading, it rose by more than 176%. As of last Friday, FuboTV's market capitalization was approximately $480 million.

Controversy Over Venu Sports Will Be Resolved

FuboTV is the main service provided by Fubo, focusing on live streaming sports events and other entertainment content over the internet. Customers can subscribe to FuboTV to watch TV shows, sports events, and more.

FuboTV's specialty lies in its focus on sports content, particularly live broadcasts of sports events including soccer, basketball, and baseball.

This partnership with Disney marks a further strengthening of FuboTV's position in the highly competitive sports streaming market.

Notably, this agreement also means that FuboTV will drop its lawsuit against Venu Sports. Venu Sports is a sports streaming platform launched in collaboration by Disney's ESPN, Warner Bros., and Fox, planning to provide live broadcasts of multiple sports events including the NBA (National Basketball Association), MLB (Major League Baseball), NFL (National Football League), and college sports events.

FuboTV had previously filed a lawsuit in February 2024 to try to block the launch of Venu Sports, arguing that the three companies refused to provide some of their sports channels to Fubo, which could weaken Fubo's competitiveness in the market and cause it to lose some users.

In August 2024, a judge in the Fubo lawsuit ruled that the launch of Venu Sports could "significantly reduce competition and restrict trade," and suspended the service's launch. The judge believed that Venu Sports could create unfair competition in the market. Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. considered the judge's ruling unfair, and therefore decided to appeal.

This lawsuit has attracted widespread attention, as Venu Sports plans to launch in the fall of 2024 and aims to attract a large number of users, especially sports fans, by offering a rich array of sports events. The subscription fee for Venu Sports is set at $42.99 per month, which is much cheaper than traditional cable TV packages, which typically cost over $100 per month One of the reasons traditional cable TV package prices are high is that they typically include a large number of channels, although most users may only be interested in a portion of them. In contrast, Venu Sports' pricing strategy consciously reduces the amount of content, focusing on sports events, which allows it to offer more competitive pricing (USD 42.99 per month) while catering to consumers who are only interested in sports content.

Additionally, the launch of Venu Sports also creates competition with ESPN, a sports media brand under Disney. ESPN plans to launch its own direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming platform in 2024