FuboTV closes Hulu + Live TV merger, turning litigation over Venu Sports into a scale-boosting partnership with Disney

What happened

FuboTV’s earlier legal offensive against Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery over the proposed Venu Sports JV has effectively ended in a strategic about-face, with Fubo now closing its merger with Disney’s Hulu + Live TV service. This transaction converts what had been a courtroom fight into a boardroom deal, aligning Fubo with a key former adversary and embedding the Hulu + Live TV assets into the combined platform. For Fubo, the close likely secures long-sought ESPN/ABC carriage and materially increases its scale in virtual MVPDs, addressing one of the core constraints highlighted in prior filings. The deal also removes the major regulatory overhang that had kept the stock’s risk/reward finely balanced, shifting investor focus from approval risk to integration, content economics and operating performance. Strategically, Fubo now moves from a niche sports-first challenger to a more fully bundled, scaled competitor to YouTube TV, albeit with higher execution risk and a more complex capital and governance structure to manage.

Implication

For investors, the closure of the Hulu + Live TV transaction is a material positive versus the prior setup, as it resolves the key binary regulatory catalyst that had capped the multiple and locks in the strategic benefits of ESPN/ABC carriage and greater scale. The combined platform should support higher ARPU through a more complete bundle, better ad monetization from increased reach and improved negotiating leverage with content owners, all of which can support a re-rating if management delivers on unit economics. At the same time, the story shifts from regulatory timing to integration risk: melding product, pricing, tech stacks and go-to-market from two sizable vMVPDs will be complex, and near-term churn, marketing spend and margin volatility should be expected. Capital structure and cash flow remain important watchpoints, as Fubo still has negative free cash flow and convertible debt maturities ahead, even if larger scale ultimately helps absorption of sports rights inflation. On balance, the investment case becomes more execution-driven but structurally stronger, with a clearer strategic moat in sports-centric live TV and better odds that the stock can support a higher EV/Sales multiple over time if synergies and profitability targets are met.

Thesis delta

The thesis shifts from a binary, regulatory-driven setup to an execution-driven integration story with meaningfully improved strategic positioning. With the Hulu + Live TV merger closed and ESPN/ABC carriage effectively secured with no evident onerous remedies, we move from a HOLD/NEUTRAL stance to a more constructive, BUY-leaning view predicated on scale-driven ARPU and ad upside. Key new risks are integration complexity and the need to translate improved content position into sustainable positive cash flow before convertible maturities come into focus.