All eyes were on Qatar on Wednesday as France played Morocco to decide who would move on to the finals of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Well, all eyes except those hoping to tune in on fuboTV's (FUBO +0.00%) live TV streaming service. Subscribers of the platform were shut out of the big semifinal match.
Apologies to customers who are having issues with the France vs Morocco game. We are addressing the issue. Please note you can stream this game directly on FOX as well for free: https://t.co/AYBr6WO3nO
-- fuboTV (@fuboTV) December 14, 2022
Making matters worse, when fuboTV subscribers took the advice offered -- to stream it for free directly on Fox -- they were also denied access to the big game. The Fox app requires a TV provider at log in, and users trying to get in with their fuboTV credentials were not being let in to the platform.
It was a bad moment for fuboTV. Was it a bandwidth issue? After a history of losses was fuboTV having problems paying its channel partners? The issue was apparently a matter beyond fuboTV's own operations, but it was still a step back for a streaming service that was growing its audience so quickly before Wednesday's blackout.
Image source: Getty Images.
Hitting the net
fuboTV continued to apologize long after the game was decided. Spoiler alert: France won. It would go on to concede that the customer access issue wasn't related to a technical issue on its end. It pointed to a cyber-related incident that it began investigating in order to restore access to its subscribers. The service was restored by Wednesday night.
By Thursday morning it had a clearer take on the matter. FuboTV was a target of a cybercrime attack. It reported the incident to law enforcement, engaging with an incident response company to investigate the matter and make sure that there isn't a threat of further disruption. Argentina will face France in the final match on Sunday morning.
NYSE: FUBO
Key Data Points
Outages happen. Platforms of all sizes come under attack. The question -- for investors, anyway -- is if fuboTV will see its momentum take a hit in the aftermath of Wednesday's downtime. fuboTV markets itself as a "sports first" service. More than three dozen of its channels offer live sporting events around the world.
It's a compelling proposition for cord-cutters looking to scratch the live sports itch once they cut their cable or satellite TV providers loose. Revenue rose 43% in fuboTV's latest quarter, decelerating from the triple-digit year-over-year gains it was posting until recently, but still a respectable growth spurt. Its North American subscriber base has grown by 31% to 1.231 million homes, gaining market share in this digital niche.
fuboTV is confident about its current liquidity levels, but the red ink is problematic. It expects to be generating positive free cash flow by 2025, but that's a long time for a company posting deficits with slightly more debt than cash on its balance sheet.
Viewers are willing to pay up for the platform that replaces their legacy carriers. Average monthly subscription revenue is up 4% to $64.15. It also collects a healthy trickle of advertising revenue on top of that, even though the current climate isn't kind for ad-supported businesses. Average monthly ad revenue per subscriber is down 12% to $7.37. It's still a healthy haul on top of the low-margin subscription business. It's roughly double what Roku is making in monthly ad revenue per user, and that's the entire non-hardware business model for the bellwether of streaming service stocks.
fuboTV knows that it has to start reining in its widening deficits. It recently decided to give up on its once-ambitious but always costly plans to become a sportsbook for its growing base of active sports fans willing to place bets on the games they're watching. It may lose some subscribers after this week's cyber attack. Switching providers is easy in the live TV streaming realm. However, there's a lot to gain for the severely depressed stock if it's able to overcome its World Cup collapse.
