Fubo will make a free tier available later this year. Similar to other live TV streaming services, Fubo has slowly been adding more FAST channels to its lineup. The company now feels its FAST offering is becoming substantial enough to be offered as its own product.
Fubo first suggested a free tier was coming earlier this year when the company reported its fourth quarter 2023 and year-end results. At the time, Co-Founder and CEO, David Gandler, explained Fubo’s vision “is to offer different types of packages” and that one of the first steps in this strategy includes “the forthcoming launch of a free content tier to include the nearly 160 fast channels we have launched since 2022.”
During the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference earlier this week, Gandler spoke more on the free tier, including reiterating how Fubo views the free tier as a way to keep users within its ecosystem.
While Fubo tends to encounter a good amount of seasonality-based cancellations each year, Gandler also acknowledged “we have a very expensive product” and that this is “one of the problems that we’re dealing with.”
Essentially, Fubo hopes the free trier will also appeal to those that sign up for a free trial but don’t convert to paid subscribers. Gandler made the same point earlier this year, stating “By providing these channels outside of the paywall, we plan to leverage this tier to retain and monetize consumers who sign up for fubo but either don’t convert into paying users or who cancel their subscription.”
In addition to maintaining users who might cancel during the offseason, or due to the price, Gandler also suggested that the free tier could eventually prove useful as an “acquisition funnel” in its own right.
Gandler also dismissed concerns over existing paying subscribers downgrading to the free tier, explaining that, as Fubo is a sports-focused service, sports would remain one of the main differentiators between the free and paid tiers.
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