In the latest riveting episode of Everything Costs More, Fubo raised the prices of all of its English-language plans by $5 for new customers. The hike includes Fubo’s Essential plan, which only launched in early December.
In a statement to The Streamable (which first reported the news), Fubo blamed the fee hikes on increased programming costs. “The regular prices of the English-language plans have increased $5 due to rising costs from our programming partners,” a spokesperson wrote. “We only make adjustments when necessary, and we’re committed to keeping Fubo competitive while ensuring our subscribers have access to the channels, features and live events they enjoy.”
The changes now put Fubo’s cheapest plan (the aforementioned Essential bundle) at $85 monthly, slightly more than YouTube TV’s $83. The latter raised its fees by $10 per month in early December — up from the $35 monthly price it debuted with in 2017.
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In addition to Fubo’s $85 Essential plan, the streamer offers a Pro plan that technically costs the same. But its angle is that, unlike Essentials, it includes regional sports networks, which add mandatory fees of up to $16 per month to the base price. Essentials gives you the option of skipping the RSNs and their fees if you aren’t worried about losing many of your local teams’ games. (Yes, live-streaming TV is often now as much of a confusing mess as traditional cable.)
Fubo Elite, which now costs $95 monthly (plus RSN fees), includes 78 extra channels — like The Cooking Channel, NBA TV and MLB TV. Fubo also offers a $33 Spanish-language Latino plan with networks such as ESPN Deportes, Cine Latino and Nat Geo Mundo. It was the only subscription tier spared from the price hikes.
Although Fubo is arguably the best live TV service for sports, it has some significant missing pieces compared to rivals like YouTube TV. Notable omissions are channels from Warner Bros. Discovery (CNN, TNT, TBS, HGTV, Discovery, Food Network and more), A&E and AMC.
To ease the blow (very briefly), Fubo is offering savings to new subscribers on their first month of service. New signups get $25 off their first month of the Essential plan and $20 off Elite or Pro. Meanwhile, you can save $8 on the Latino plan. Just remember that the full prices will kick in after that single discounted month.
Earlier this month, Fubo and Disney agreed to merge the streaming service with Hulu + Live TV. If the deal gets shareholder and regulatory approval, it will create a new entity (under the Fubo brand) to manage both services. At least the initial promise is that the two services will continue to operate independently. Disney will own 70 percent of the new company, while Fubo will have 30 percent. The two products currently boast a combined six million subscribers.
Source: www.engadget.com