Recently installed Fubo CEO Alisa Bowen whetted Wall Street appetites for the upside of being controlled by Disney, her alma mater, during the company’s quarterly earnings call on Wednesday.
“Obviously, I know that company very well, and I’m very confident that we’ll continue to strengthen those relationships as we work together on what the future opportunities for both Fubo and Hulu + Live TV are,” Bowen said.
Bowen, a longtime former Disney streaming exec, took the helm at Fubo last month, replacing co-founder David Gandler. Disney in 2025 took a 70% stake in Fubo as part of a settlement of an antitrust lawsuit brought over the never-launched Venu Sports, a joint venture backed by Disney, Fox Corp. and Warner Bros. Discovery. Fubo has remained a separately traded company, operating both FuboTV and Hulu + Live TV as separate services.
“Even today, just nine months after the close, there are some really interesting areas of opportunity that we’re very enthusiastic about,” Bowen said. Marketing partnerships, she explained will be one area to explore. In one example, the sports-focused FuboTV has recently been featured on the ESPN app.
“The ESPN relationship is at its very early stages and while the numbers are small, the signals are very convincing,” Bowen continued. “There’s better conversion and retention from that heavily enthusiastic sports base for the Fubo products versus some of the other marketing media channels that we have and tapping into that audience that ESPN serves so well is a clear opportunity.”
Disney is also working on integrating Hulu and Hulu + Live TV into the Disney+ app. Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro elaborated on that plan earlier Wednesday on Disney’s earnings call.
Fubo stock rose in early trading after the company reported revenue of $1.48 billion in the quarter, flat with the year-earlier period on a pro forma basis. Losses per share came in at 25 cents, which was better than analysts had expected, with total subscribers inching up 2% to 5.75 million.
Beyond the synergy question, Bowen and CFO John Janedis addressed the impact of the World Cup on subscriber levels as well as how they stack up with rival YouTube TV. In recent months, YouTube TV has rolled out nearly a dozen new bundles at varying price points, including a sports-focused offering.
“Our package competes with a YouTube TV sports package, obviously, but there are differences between each of these,” Bowen said. “For example, the Fox News component in our sports package is something that’s particularly valued by our subscriber base and is working well for us.”
The World Cup, whose Spanish-language broadcasts on Telemundo were made available on Fubo in a late-breaking carriage deal just prior to the tournament’s start in June, had a “favorable impact” on subscriber levels, Janedis said. On a sequential basis, 25,000 subscribers came in during the quarter, presumably a good number of them drawn by the World Cup.
Bowen noted that a number of product innovations were unveiled during the lead-up to the five-week event, which set ratings records for Fox and Telemundo.
Being included as part of Disney’s upfront ad sales process also provided a lift, Bowen said. “We’re very bullish on our opportunity to best leverage the Disney ad sales operation,” she said.
