FuboTV is getting more cash to fuel its sports-centered, over-the-top internet pay-TV business: The startup announced $75 million in fourth-round funding from investors including AMC Networks and 21st Century Fox.
The Series D round included participation by new investor AMC and existing investors 21st Century Fox, Luminari Capital, Northzone, Sky and the former Scripps Networks Interactive (now part of Discovery).
New York-based FuboTV plans to use the funding — which brings it to $150 million total raised to date — to expand its engineering and product teams, as well as increase marketing spending and to roll out new content bundles both in the U.S. and internationally.
As it has grown over the past year, FuboTV moved its headquarters into a 17,000-square-foot office space in midtown Manhattan New York headquarters. With the new funding, the company plans to double its office space and staff by the end of 2018, including the opening of a second major office in a location yet to be determined.
Launched in January 2015 as a streaming-soccer service, FuboTV is jostling with a number of other OTT pay-TV players in the U.S. — each scrambling to compete on price, packaging and features for consumers looking for alternatives to traditional cable and satellite TV. Those include Dish’s Sling TV, AT&T’s DirecTV Now, YouTube TV, Hulu’s live TV service, Sony’s PlayStation Vue and Philo (which is backed by AMC, A+E Networks, Discovery/Scripps and Viacom).
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“The pay-TV space is experiencing a renaissance, and the company will use this investment to continue to drive technological advancement in video quality and latency, machine learning and predictive analytics to deliver a best-in-class experience,” David Gandler, FuboTV CEO and co-founder, said in announcing the funding.
Other investors in the company include DCM Ventures, i2bf, LionTree Partners, Univision Communications Inc., Edgar Bronfman Jr. (former Chairman and CEO of Warner Music Group), Chris Silbermann (founding partner, ICM Partners) and former NBA commissioner David Stern.
FuboTV currently offers a $45-per-month bundle that includes more than 70 channels, including local TV stations, national cable networks and regional sports nets. The company announced that it hit 100,000 paying subscribers in September 2017.
In the last 10 months, FuboTV has signed distribution deals with AMC Networks, CBS (including Showtime), Scripps, NFL Networks (including NFL RedZone), Pac-12 Networks, Meredith’s PeopleTV and Sports Illustrated TV, and RSNs including MSG Networks, NESN and SNY.
It also has added 210 local broadcast affiliates or owned-and-operated stations bringing FuboTV’s total lineup to 257 stations plus access to Fox network programming in an additional 40 markets.
