In a wildly anticipated event, former boxing champion Mike Tyson faced off against famous YouTuber Jake Paul on Nov. 15 in Texas. The fight was streamed on Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), but it encountered severe disruptions, buffering, and outages for thousands of viewers. This debacle raises an important question: Can Netflix carve out a lucrative niche in live sports streaming?
If the answer is no, that’s good news for fuboTV (FUBO 2.74%), a streaming platform that specializes in sports. Let’s find out whether fuboTV, a company that has faced significant headwinds in recent years, could benefit from Netflix’s latest botched attempt at sports streaming.
What’s going on with fuboTV?
Over the past few years, fuboTV has struggled with slowing top-line and subscriber growth. In the third quarter, the company’s revenue increased by 20.3% year over year to $386.2 million. That’s far less impressive than the 42.6% sales growth it reported in the third quarter of 2023. FuboTV’s North America subscribers increased by 9.2% year over year to 1.6 million — this number grew by 20% year over year in Q3 2023. The company’s performance in the rest of the world (ROW) was far worse.
FuboTV lost subscribers during the third quarter in its ROW category, which declined by 8.1% compared to the year-ago period, landing at 378,000. In fairness, slowing growth is almost bound to happen as a company becomes larger. However, fuboTV isn’t yet profitable, so it is fair to ask whether it can eventually turn a profit even as it is not increasing its revenue and subscriptions as fast as it once did. The company has progressed on the bottom line. FuboTV’s third-quarter net loss per share of $0.17 was much better than the loss per share of $0.29 reported in the prior-year quarter.
But potential competition could complicate matters for fuboTV.
Will Netflix be a problem?
Netflix’s decision to stream the fight between Tyson and Paul was not a one-off. The company is planning to make more moves in live sports. Netflix announced it would begin hosting live NFL games on Christmas Day. If that works well, it’s hard to imagine that Netflix will stop there. The possibilities in live sports streaming are endless. The company ended the quarter with 282.72 million subscriptions.
There is probably some overlap between Netflix’s existing customer base and fuboTV’s. If Netflix succeeds in this endeavor, many of the company’s subscribers who are also signed up for fuboTV will cancel the second subscription. As things stand, though, that’s a big “if.” Netflix may not be ready to host live sports on a massive scale, as we learned from its most recent attempt. Does that mean fuboTV is out of the woods?
Is fuboTV worth the risk?
Netflix knows there were problems during the Tyson-Paul fight. The company will likely seek to address these issues in upcoming live-streaming events. So, just because Netflix isn’t yet ready to be a hub of live sports doesn’t mean it won’t ever crack the code. The mere possibility of Netflix dominating — or even making a minor splash — in this area represents a significant risk to fuboTV. But what if Netflix never succeeds in streaming live sports?
Even then, fuboTV might not be worth investing in. The company faces significant competition in its niche, and more players not named Netflix could join the fray. FuboTV is currently fighting an antitrust battle against Walt Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery, three major media companies that are seeking to launch a sports streaming platform called Venu. If it ever sees the light of day, Venu will take significant market share away considering the industry know-how, deep pockets, and brand names of the companies backing it.
Venu would be a disaster for fuboTV — no wonder the company is trying to prevent it from ever hitting the market. Even if it is successful, this highlights an important point. FuboTV has yet to build a competitive advantage that would allow it to be successful despite stiff competition. And considering all the other problems it faces, fuboTV isn’t worth investing in right now. There are far better streaming stocks out there, including Netflix.
Prosper Junior Bakiny has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Netflix, Walt Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and fuboTV. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
