FuboTV today announced that the streaming service had 1.13 million paid subscribers as of December 31, 2021, up from the 1 million subs it had at the end of the third quarter of 2021. The addition of 185,000 subscriptions in the fourth quarter means the service closed 2021 with an increase of 106% more subscriptions than the year before.
And it beats the guidance update the company issued on January 10, 2021, when it said to expect more than 1.1 million paid subscriptions, up from the previous guidance of between 1.06 million and 1.07 million.
“FuboTV delivered a record fourth quarter and full year across a number of our key financial and operational metrics,” David Gandler, co-founder and CEO of FuboTV, said in a press release. “Engagement continues to be strong as we add differentiated content to our offering and focus on innovating our product to meet consumer preferences and drive a premium experience. Our expansion into real-money wagering is underway with the launch of Fubo Sportsbook across two states, with additional states expected to follow this year. This launch represents a differentiated and industry-first integration of streaming and a sports wagering product, and we see ourselves in the very early innings of a massive opportunity.”
By comparison, FuboTV still is about a quarter of the size of Hulu With Live TV, which last reported 4.3 million subscribers, and half that of Sling TV, which ended its third quarter with 2.556 million subs.
FuboTV now says it expects to hit 1.5 million subscribers for the full year in North America alone, with nearly a quarter-million in the rest of the world. In addition to the United States, FuboTV is available in Canada and Spain, and in France through its acquisition of Molotov.
“Our fourth quarter closes out an extraordinary year defined by delivering triple-digit year-over-year growth in total revenues, advertising revenues, and subscriber growth, all while continuing to expand adjusted contribution margin,” Edgar Bronfman Jr., executive chairman of FuboTV, said in the earnings release. “Within the year, we achieved several important milestones, representing meaningful advancements toward our mission to build the world’s leading global live TV streaming platform with the greatest breadth of premium content, interactivity, and integrated wagering. Our progress over the course of 2021 further fortifies our position to continue to execute on that mission in 2022.”
FuboTV is available on every major streaming platform — including Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Android TV, and Google TV — on various smart TVs, and in a web browser. Its plans start at $70 a month for 110 channels, and range up to the $80-a-month “Elite” plan with 162 channels and extra cloud-based storage for recordings. And FuboTV still has a slew of add-ons that you can’t find elsewhere, including a number of sports-specific plans with worldwide coverage.
