FuboTV Inc. shares climbed 14% in premarket trading Friday after the sports-first TV-streaming company reported a narrower-than-expected loss and better-than-expected revenue in its fourth-quarter results.
FuboTV
FUBO,
reported a net loss of $71 million, or 24 cents a share, after a net loss of $95.9 million, or 48 cents a share, in the same period last year. Analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting a loss of 31 cents a share. On an adjusted basis, FuboTV reported a loss of 17 cents a share, beating the FactSet estimate of a loss of 24 cents a share.
Total revenue grew 28% to $410.2 million, beating the FactSet consensus of $398 million. Subscription revenue was $370.1 million, up from $284.9 million in the prior year’s quarter, and advertising revenue increased to $39 million from $33.9 million in the same period last year. The company also grew North American average revenue per user by 15% year over year to an all-time high of $86.65.
Related: FuboTV sues to block ESPN, Warner, Fox sports-streaming venture
“Our strong results in North America included 12% year-over-year growth in subscribers, 29% year-over-year revenue growth and a record $86.65 average revenue per user (ARPU),” FuboTV CEO David Gandler said in a statement. “The quarter also marked a healthy year-over-year improvement in profitability and cash usage, reflecting the success of our continuing initiatives focused on adding efficiency across our operations. We remain confident in achieving our 2025 positive cash flow goal.”
Free cash flow was negative $5.85 million, but that marked an improvement from negative $20.56 million in the prior year’s quarter.
For 2024, FuboTV is forecasting 2.055 million to 2.095 million total paid subscribers and $1.536 billion to $1.56 billion total revenue. Analysts surveyed by FactSet were looking for 2.119 million subscribers and revenue of $1.624 billion.
Related: FuboTV’s stock plunges 23% in wake of sports-streaming venture from ESPN, Fox, WBD
In the statement, FuboTV also addressed its recent lawsuit against the new sports-streaming joint venture from Walt Disney Co.’s
DIS,
ESPN, Fox Corp.
FOX,
and Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.
WBD,
which is scheduled to premiere this fall. “These results are especially impressive given the years-long challenges Fubo has faced as a result of what we believe have been anticompetitive practices by The Walt Disney Company, Fox Corp. and Warner Bros. Discovery,” Gandler said. “As evident in the antitrust lawsuit we filed against these parties last month, their proposed sports-streaming joint venture is only the latest example of the pernicious practices they have inflicted to suppress our business and harm consumers.”
He added: “We are asking for an opportunity to compete fairly as a business, and to offer consumers a streaming option that gives them the channels they want, and at a fair price.”
FuboTV shares have fallen 37.7% in the last three months, compared with the S&P 500 index’s
SPX,
gain of 11.6%.
This story originally appeared on Marketwatch
