FuboTV (FUBO -0.28%) has never been shy about its ambitions -- providing a live-TV streaming platform built for sports fans, cord-cutters, and viewers who still want to surf channels without a cable box. But bold plans alone don't pay the bills. And, for quite some time now, neither has Fubo. Although the company carved a niche for itself in live sports streaming, its subscriber numbers have been falling, profits have been missing, and the path forward is a little foggy.
Still, a recent deal with Walt Disney (DIS -0.37%) could be the spark Fubo needs. It may not be enough to save the streaming service stock entirely, but it gives the company something it's lacked for a while: momentum. And for investors with patience, that could be enough to matter.
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Subscriber slippage and red ink
Let's start with the bad news first.
In the first quarter of 2025, Fubo's North American paid subscriber count fell to 1.47 million, down from 1.676 million just three months prior. Revenue in the region ticked up slightly to $408 million, but that growth came as free cash flow remained deep in negative territory at $62 million.
Outside North America, the story wasn't much better. International subscribers dropped 11% year over year, with segment revenue flatlining around $8.4 million. The momentum that once made Fubo a promising growth stock has, it seems, all but stalled. Guidance for Q2 expected revenue to dip to as low as $340 million, another 10% decline.
Things seem rough. So why isn't this the end?
Enter Disney
Now, the good news.
In January, Fubo announced a surprise agreement with Walt Disney. The entertainment giant and its partners agreed to pay $220 million and provide a $145 million term loan to acquire a whopping 70% of Fubo. While the two live TV businesses will continue to operate separately, the deal brings them under the same umbrella, creating a combined footprint that's expected to serve more than 6.2 million North American subscribers.
It's exactly the kind of deal that Fubo needs, for it gives it three things it hasn't quite enjoyed: scale, capital, and content leverage.
It also gives Disney a stronger foothold in the live streaming TV space, a market it's not exactly dominating. Although live TV streaming has about 20.9 million paid subscribers in the U.S., only about 4.6 million are subscribed to Hulu+ Live TV. Nearly double that number (about 8 million) belong to Alphabet's YouTube TV, a subscriber base that's projected to outsize legacy TV distributers like Charter Communications by 2026, according to Forbes. It's not clear yet whether combining with FuboTV will move the needle against YouTube TV, but it at least gets Disney back in the conversation.
Will the deal save Fubo?
Although the Disney agreement would offer scale and stability, it's not a done deal just yet. And even if it closes, it won't fix Fubo overnight. So, at this point in the game, it's worth asking: What does Fubo's future look like without Disney?
Let's start with the fundamentals. Fubo already took big steps to tighten its operations. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) improved by $37 million year over year in Q1. Free cash flow is negative, but it's trending in the right direction, having improved by $9.3 million since the first quarter of last year.
Even with these gains, however, the picture isn't ideal. Guidance for Q2 implies a continued drop in subscribers and revenue. And with total content costs rising industrywide, it's unclear how long Fubo can sustain its programming lineup without the negotiating power that comes from scale. Competing with tech giants like Alphabet or legacy players like Comcast requires either a massive subscriber base or deep pockets. And Fubo has neither.
In that light, the Disney partnership looks more and more like a necessity. Without it, Fubo may still have a path to profitability. But it's a narrow one, and any misstep could knock it off course.
A calculated gamble
FuboTV isn't for the faint of heart. The company is still bleeding cash, subscriber trends are headed south, and the success of the Disney deal is far from guaranteed.
But that deal is also the best chance Fubo's ever had to become something sustainable. It offers a path, maybe not to greatness, but at least to stability. If you're an investor who can tolerate risk and wait for the deal to execute, this might be a compelling time to buy in.
