October 27, 2024

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Good Sunday morning. As you stream your live sports today, how many of you will stream them through Fubo? The odds are very few of you, since the nine-year-old service has fewer than two million subs. But it did notch a huge legal victory over the big dogs last month. I spoke to Fubo CEO David Gandler and have some thoughts on the company’s crusade.

As always, I welcome your thoughts at [[email protected]]. My column last week on Tom Brady’s broadcasting conflicts prompted a flood of emails, and I’ve shared selections below.

— Dan Roberts [[link removed]], FOS EIC

Fubo’s Fight Against Streaming Giants Feels Futile

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Fubo has been an underdog in the streaming wars since its debut in 2016. But people don’t choose their streaming provider based on wanting to support the underdog.

The pay-TV app bundles an array of live channels from elsewhere à la Disney-owned Hulu + Live TV, Google-owned YouTube TV, and Dish-owned Sling TV. Those are behemoths to reckon with already, but when you add in Venu Sports, an exciting new sports-focused “skinny bundle” from the power triumvirate of Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery that was set to launch in time for the NFL season [[link removed]], the competitive landscape looks positively insurmountable for a small player.

That’s why Fubo sued in February to stop Venu, and in August, it notched a big legal win: a judge granted the temporary injunction, blocking Venu from launching [[link removed]]—for now. The three giants behind Venu immediately appealed the ruling, and arguments are coming in December. (The full Venu trial will not happen until next October.)

The stock ( FUBO [[link removed]]) got a brief 30% pop after the Venu victory, then fell back. Shares are down 50% in 2024, while the S&P is up 22%. A brutal Motley Fool [[link removed]] headline declared last month, “FuboTV Stock Is Down 97% From Its Peak, but It’s Still Not a Buy.”

CEO David Gandler says his company has exceeded expectations in almost every quarter it has been public, and that the reason the stock sucks is … the competition. (Well, yes.)

“The stock trades in a way that doesn’t make a lot of sense,” he told me in an interview [[link removed]] this month. “That really is due to the predatory pricing that we’ve been dealing with, the monopolistic attempts to preclude us from providing a package that’s similar to even what some of the other players out there have. … So we have been hamstrung. We’ve had not only our arms or hands tied behind our back, but our feet tied behind our back as well.”

Maybe it’s also down because Fubo still isn’t profitable, and in Q2 it lost subscribers in the U.S., dipping to 1.45 million, down from 1.51 million in Q1 and down from a peak of 1.61 million in Q4 2023. (We’ll get Q3 earnings Nov. 1.)

Fubo’s argument about Venu is at least directionally right: It doesn’t seem fair these TV giants are willing to come together to launch a skinny bundle when they’ve never been willing to license specific channels to anyone else to do a skinny bundle. But is it anti-competitive?

Lawmakers, including Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), and Joaquin Castro (D., Texas), sent a letter in support of Fubo before the injunction, and the Department of Justice is reportedly preparing to do the same [[link removed]]. Six Republican-led states filed an amicus brief [[link removed]] last month in support of Venu, writing that the injunction against Venu robs consumers of a competitive product at a better price. (Fubo Pro will run you $79.99 per month. Venu planned to charge half that: $42.99 per month.)

Anecdotally, I don’t know anyone who watches TV through Fubo. I use YouTube TV and am very happy with the service. Gandler points out that competing with Google is absolutely brutal [[link removed]]: “They are the internet, basically … it’s hard to compete when you can’t buy ad units on YouTube that YouTube TV gets when they cover the play button on the video player; you can’t buy that, or when they leverage the Google.com homepage.”

As Gandler frames it, almost angrily: “We’re the challenger. Everyone’s putting out all the stops to attempt to foil our growth trajectory. It certainly is difficult.”

Indeed, Fubo is David, taking on the Goliath(s) of the streaming wars. But the Goliaths have brand awareness, pricing power, and gargantuan scale.

Fubo is hanging its whole future on the Venu battle. A lawyer for Fubo even said during the injunction hearing [[link removed]] that if the judge didn’t grant the injunction, Fubo would “run out of cash by the first quarter of next year.”

But the cynic in me thinks that even if Venu never launches, it doesn’t mean the skies will clear and Fubo will suddenly fly.

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From Fan to Phenom With Anthony Davis

Front Office Sports and Upper Deck have joined forces to celebrate the nostalgia of sports, shining a spotlight on the childhood inspirations, career influences, and life milestones of the world’s most notable athletes.

NBA superstar Anthony Davis [[link removed]] grew up admiring basketball legends and dreaming of playing in the league—now, he faces off against his childhood idols.

In the latest episode [[link removed]] of Athlete Archives, Davis opens up about his journey from being a young fan to becoming one of the game’s top players, sharing personal stories about the players who shaped his path and how surreal it feels to now sign autographs himself.

Watch the full episode [[link removed]].

Notes From the Crowd The Brady Rules

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Many readers wrote notes about my column last week on Tom Brady’s broadcast restrictions [[link removed]]. Here are a few selections from the inbox.

“3 seasons?! I don’t think he makes it back for next season. He’s better off going in-studio where he can give feedback and criticism a little more scripted. It’s surely not about the $$; he has plenty and will certainly make plenty more off of all his ventures including the Raiders.” —George Christodoulou

“He needs to go as soon as possible. Greg Olsen was and is a much better color announcer. The restrictions pose a conflict of interest that most other jobs wouldn’t abide.” —Grace Armstrong

“I don’t believe Fox should have to honor his contract, as obviously he can’t contribute as an unbiased reporter!!” —Tom Rose

“I hope you’re right about Brady being gone within a few years, and I imagine Fox does, too. Back in the day I’d watch ANY game John Madden was doing. Brady is way too boring to add value and viewers, and I don’t see that changing, especially with the restrictions he now has as a broadcaster. Travis Kelce will be in that seat soon enough.” —Joe Lynch

“I worked in PR in the NFL two years ago for the Jacksonville Jaguars. I worked with our media locally and nationally (and some of the London team) every day all year. I know how much work is put in at the stadium and in direct contact with players, coaches, staff, and facilities. Reading this coming from having worked directly with these NFL TV people gives me a bigger perspective than the average spectator on this. … Good grief. Yeah sure, he can do the job sitting in an office somewhere, with everyone else doing his in-person talking, interviewing, and research for him, and he can make a few comments here and there that don’t break one of those rules, but that’s defeating the purpose of the job. The on-site stuff, practice observations and interviews, production meetings, talking about the teams and the game and actually being there while it’s happening … that’s key to the job.” —Makenzie Jones

But not everyone agreed with my view that Brady’s restrictions are a problem …

“It’s an excellent problem to have. I celebrate Tom in all his capacities. While he attempts to ride the line, I guess for me, the failure to meet the standards of a traditional game analyst is ok. Specifically because that is what all athletes are called to do when playing any sport. In a world where “conflict of interest” frameworks are unraveling in our society left, right, front and back, an NFL-related one is minor in comparison. Tom Brady wants his voice and influence inserted into many sports related spaces and he should be supported by the sports writing community because he has earned it.” —Amy Vaughan

Good Week / Bad Week MLB’s Wish Comes True, NFL’s Streaming Stumbles

Kiyoshi Mio/Imagn Images

Good week for:

MLB ⬆ The league couldn’t have dreamed of a bigger World Series matchup. The Dodgers and Yankees—featuring the league’s two marquee stars, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge—opened the Fall Classic on Friday. Tickets for the game were selling for twice as much as the 2023 World Series [[link removed]]. There’s an expectation the viewership will blow last year’s record low [[link removed]] out of the water.

Caitlin Clark ⬆ The No. 1 pick in the 2024 WNBA draft is expected to receive a massive offer from Unrivaled [[link removed]], the new women’s 3-on-3 basketball league launching in January. The bid will be north of a million dollars and come with additional compensation, akin to the deal Lionel Messi received with MLS, according to an exclusive from FOS’s Michael McCarthy [[link removed]]. The deal trumps her WNBA rookie contract, which paid her just $76,535 for her first season.

Bad week for:

NFL on ESPN+ ⬇ Monday’s Chargers-Cardinals game on ESPN+ drew an audience of 1.8 million [[link removed]], a relatively large number for a game exclusive to a streaming platform. But the NFL is a different beast from other leagues—and the figure is less than a third of the viewers of the Sunday NFL Network game between the Jaguars and Bears in London, which aired at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Glen Taylor ⬇ Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore have reportedly made a deposit of more than $940 million into an escrow account [[link removed]], which is designed to show they have the financial ability to complete the original $1.5 billion purchase of the NBA’s Timberwolves and WNBA’s Lynx. Taylor has been battling the duo since pulling the teams off the market in March after a supposed sale was agreed upon. A hearing in the arbitration process between the two sides is on Nov. 4.

You Might Have Missed Cashing In on the Mets’ Gimmicky Season, Charting the NBA’s First Billion-Dollar Player

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The Mets’ improbable journey may have ended at the hands of the Dodgers in the NLCS, but their meme-laden season—from OMG to Grimace—lives on. Indie designers helped stir the fever of the now-indelible team icons, and FOS contributor Hannah Keyser [[link removed]] spoke to some of them about cashing in on the fan craze [[link removed]]. LeBron James will be the first player in NBA history to breach the half-billion-dollar mark in career earnings following this season. But with salaries continuing to rise, the first player to hit $1 billion across their career is already on the horizon. FOS reporter Colin Salao [[link removed]] digs into the facts and figures behind these wild earnings [[link removed]]. Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Events [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Podcast [[link removed]] Written by Daniel Roberts [[link removed]], Colin Salao [[link removed]], Meredith Turits [[link removed]] Edited by Lisa Scherzer [[link removed]], Meredith Turits [[link removed]], Peter Richman [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]

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