fuboTV Inc. (NYSE:FUBO) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

David Gandler: Yeah. This is David. Why don’t I start, John? Look, I think this was an area where we definitely wanted to experiment a little bit. I think unlike other platforms that have FAST channels, we’ve limited to about, I would say, under 150 or so. Most platforms have 300-plus. And it’s exactly as you said, the goal was to augment our current entertainment lineup. And I think from the onset, even back to the IPO, we’ve always said that the entertainment content on the platform was fungible. And what we’ve seen is, although we have removed certain content — entertainment content from the platform, we’ve seen the FAST channels really take some of that share of viewership. And as I said before, it’s really allowed us to drive advertising revenue above and beyond where we would.

It also gives us more inventory. So, if you think about broadcasting cable, with broadcast networks, you don’t really have any inventory. And then, on the cable side, you essentially have between two and three minutes of ad avails. In this case, with FAST channels, we’re getting roughly around 50% of the inventory. And the interesting thing is we can use our platform to drive viewership to a number of different pieces of content. And so, obviously, it’s in our best interest to drive people to FAST channels when we know there are certain genres that they really enjoy. So, which is what we’ve been doing. And then, I don’t know, John, if you want to add anything there?

John Janedis: The other thing I would add to that, actually, Pat, is that the team spends a lot of time looking at per subscriber viewing metrics and the like. And what I could share with you on that front is that the viewing hours on a per sub basis are up somewhere, call it, in the high double-digits to around 100% year-over-year.

Unidentified Analyst: Okay. Thank you. And then I guess the last question I had was how you guys see distribution relationships evolving as more content is incorporated onto some of the SVOD services?

David Gandler: Yeah. This is David. Look, as you can imagine, it’s a very interesting industry, right? It’s not like the airline industry where Boeing manufactures planes, American Airlines buys planes and sells tickets and so forth. This is where — an industry where everyone is distributing, everyone is producing, and everyone is at the same time partnering and competing. So, it’s a very complex space. I think our relationships continue to improve on multiple levels with distributors. And I think the Charter-Disney dispute is a great example of two companies that basically compete for customers in the pay TV space, but at the same time, have found ways to work with one another. And I think that as time goes on, many in the industry believe that not only do we have a strong technology platform, maybe the strongest in the world, we have a wonderful product, we have a fantastic team, and we’re able to really execute, not only well, but very quickly.

And so, I anticipate that relationships with large tech companies could be on the horizon as well as other distributors and content partners to be able to help them achieve their goals as well as ours. And I think from what we’ve attempted to do from the beginning is we always said that we play a very important role in this industry. Our job is to ensure that customers get the best content at the right time for the best price. And on the opposite side, we want to make sure that our content partners are monetizing their portfolio and sports contracts. And so, I think what you’re starting to see potentially with this Charter dispute is that we are in fact that partner. So, I do anticipate better relationships, stronger relationships, more executions, and different types of treatments as we go forward.

Unidentified Analyst: Thank you.

Alison Sternberg: Great. This is Alison Sternberg. I just want to thank everybody for your time this morning and your thoughtful questions. And we are looking forward to speaking with everyone again when we report the fourth quarter in February. But before we conclude the call, I did want to take a few questions that came in through our Say Technologies portal. And the first of which I think comes as no surprise, and I’ll direct it to both David and John, which is, how are you progressing towards profitability?