The combination of FuboTV and Hulu + Live TV will create the second-largest online pay-TV company in North America, trailing behind YouTube TV, with approximately $6 billion in revenue and 6.2 million subscribers. The services offer cable TV-like packages of channels via the internet, providing an alternative to traditional cable or satellite TV subscriptions.
Disney will hold a 70% controlling stake in the merged Fubo and Hulu + Live venture, which will be led by Fubo CEO and co-founder David Gandler. This deal excludes Hulu's main video-streaming business. Wall Street investors reacted positively to the news. Shares of Fubo, which had a market value of roughly $480 million as of Friday's close, surged about 260% to $5.18 in afternoon trading. Disney's stock saw a slight increase. As part of the agreement, Fubo, a sports live-streaming service, requested the U.S. District Court in Manhattan to dismiss its lawsuit against Venu Sports, the streaming service planned by Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros Discovery. Under the settlement, the companies will pay Fubo $220 million in cash, with Disney also committing to a $145 million term loan for Fubo in 2026. FuboTV, in its lawsuit filed in February against the three companies, had accused Venu's partners of engaging in anti-competitive practices that would hinder competition for sports fans. The dispute centered around a practice called 'bundling,' where TV distributors like Fubo are required to carry networks that consumers rarely watch to obtain rights to popular live sports programming. Fubo argued it was unable to secure the rights to create a sports-focused service, similar to Venu. U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett had ruled that Fubo was likely to succeed in its antitrust claims and issued a temporary injunction preventing Venu's launch. Venu's media partners were scheduled to appear in the U.S. Court of Appeals on Monday to request the court to overturn the ruling that blocked the launch of the sports streaming service