- You know,
we debated when we were going to do a fuboTV review,
and even whether we were going to do one,
but Fubo made the decision for us,
because last week they just raised their price
by $10 a month for both tiers.
It's annoying, yes,
but today what we're going to do
is tease out why this is happening,
and whether Fubo can do anything about it.
Whether it's still worth it for you,
and at the end of the video
I'm going to give them my patented advice
no one will follow.
So stick around, that's to come.
(electronic music)
- Before we start in on fuboTV I'll just remind you,
make sure you subscribe to our channel
because we're back here every Wednesday and Friday
with videos just like this.
Anyway, onto fuboTV.
Fubo excels in two major areas: soccer,
and Spanish language channels,
and frankly, they are still good at this.
Now, they've wanted to expand
and bring in a bunch of other sports,
which I think is great,
but doing that has bloated the channel count,
and best, the price as well,
and we'll come back to why that is in just a moment,
but first, some of the basics with fuboTV.
Now I've mentioned the price hike.
An additional $10 a month
means that the lower tier comes in at $55 a month
and the upper tier at $60,
but what do you get for that?
With Fubo, you can get two simultaneous streams at once
with an optional third for $5.99 a month.
For simultaneous streams at least,
that kind of puts Fubo close to the bottom of the pack
of the services that we have reviewed recently.
Now on the DVR side,
the DVR is decent, it's fine.
30 hours at no extra charge,
but if you want 500 hours you can pay $10 a month for that.
Either way, one point in their favor is indefinite storage,
meaning that when you have a recording
it doesn't get deleted after 28 days
or whatever the case may be with some other services.
Anyway, let's go into some more detail
on a couple of really important points with Fubo.
One of the reasons for Fubo's success
at carving out a sports niche
is its video quality.
And I'm not just talking about HD or 4K here.
Those are great,
but if you're watching sports,
what you care more about should be frame rate.
Now, most shows are going to air at 30 frames per second.
This is what you're used to, it's just fine,
but what if that frame rate
is increased to 60 frames per second?
Well, in that case,
your normal show will get that weird soap opera effect
where everything is super smoothed out,
but sports will look much, much better.
For example,
I've always had a hard time watching hockey on TV,
because I can't keep track of that little dang puck.
It's moving too fast.
But at 60 frames per second
I can finally track that little devil
as it goes across the ice.
And the same is going to go for baseball and football,
and yes, soccer.
So 60 frames per second is great,
and Fubo was among the first to offer it.
The only problem here is that it's only on select channels.
Now normally I wouldn't complain about that,
I'd just say give them time to improve,
but YouTube TV, Hulu, PS Vue, DirecTV Now,
they all offer 60 frames per second on every single channel,
at least, every channel that broadcasts in that frame rate.
So while streaming quality has historically
been a strength for Fubo,
well, now...
But let's talk about the amazing channel count
you get with fuboTV.
Their base package has over 80 channels,
and the $60 tier has over 100.
Now this is where we get to the strengths, the weaknesses,
and the opportunities for fuboTV.
Like I said, Fubo is built as a sports-first offering.
They want to bring you as much sports content as they can,
and they do,
but with a big glaring omission: ESPN networks.
Now more on them in just a second,
but between FS1 and 2, NBC Sports Network, NBA TV,
NFL Network, the Olympic channel,
and more BN networks than you can shake a fist at,
they've got a ton of sports.
But you know what else they have?
CNN, National Geographic, FX,
AMC, Turner Classic Movies, HGTV,
and the list goes on and on.
Now on the one hand,
this is great if you're looking
for as many channels as possible.
Kind of replacing the cable or satellite package
you had before.
But if that's the case, you probably want ESPN channels too,
and if you were just looking
for a bunch of soccer originally,
then now suddenly you're stuck with paying for
a ton of other stuff.
So the solution here is clear, right?
We just get rid of all those non-sports channels.
Well, not so fast,
because with a few exceptions
most of these popular channels out there
are owned by just a few companies,
and those companies are going to make a lot more money
if they can bundle a bunch of those channels together
and license them all to Fubo.
So let's say I'm a media buyer for Fubo
and I want to add NBA TV to our channel offering.
Well, NBA TV is owned by Turner,
and that's great.
They own TBS and TNT where you get a lot of
baseball and basketball content,
but Turner also owns CNN and HLN and Turner Classic Movies
and Adult Swim and truTV,
and they want to bundle all these things together
to sell them at a higher price.
Now repeat that process for NBC and Fox,
and suddenly you find yourself with a channel offering
that's starting to stray from its sports core.
So for those who wonder why I'm always talking about
subscriber counts with these services,
well, this is partly it.
Fubo, at 250,000 subscribers,
and probably shrinking now after the price hike,
has no leverage.
If they want to go to Fox and say we just want FS1 and FS2,
Fox can tell them to go take a hike
since Fubo's relatively small subscriber base
doesn't hold much weight.
So Fubo is left with no choice
if they want that sports content from Fox.
Or do they have a choice?
Well the thing is, they seem to have leaned into this fact
that they have a bunch of non-sports content.
So now, they've got channel groups from AMC,
- AMC, IFC, Wetv, BBC America, SundanceTV,
- Discovery.
- Travel Channel, HGTV, Food Network,
not Discovery.
- Oxygen.
That's a lot of content
that could be jettisoned in favor of, say, ESPN channels,
and then you've got the ultimate sports-centered service.
- Hahaha. Lol. You're so funny.
Yes, people will miss this or that channel,
but this is all about building an identity,
and if you want to carve our a niche
as the world's best live sports provider,
then ESPN is kind of a must have,
and Oxygen, for all its virtues, isn't.
Ultimately I don't see this happening,
and I think the $10 price hike,
while I understand it's necessary
for Fubo to keep holding up the weight
of all these channels,
it may end of chasing away too much
of the small subscriber base it already has.
So if you want my prediction,
I think Fubo will struggle in its current form
for a while longer,
a year, maybe two,
and then it will end up collapsing under its own weight.
At that point, I'm hoping that Fubo doesn't die.
Rather, I'd like to see it go back to its roots
as a way to watch live soccer from around the globe.
In that iteration, it would only need a few channels,
maybe a lot of those BN channels.
It could offer it for $10 or $15 a month,
and then they'd be a bit like Filo.
It's the thing that people also get
along with their Hulu or YouTube TV subscription
as a way to kind of fill it out a bit.
In that case, heck, even I might get Fubo,
but not now.
Not for $55 a month.
But that's just what I think.
I want to hear what you think as well,
so hit those comments below.
Like and subscribe,
because we're going to be back next week
with a big mega comparison piece with not just Fubo,
but also Sling, and YouTube TV, and Hulu, and some others.
Anyways, so that's coming up next week,
hope to see you guys there.
Thanks for watching, have a good one.