When fuboTV launched a few years ago, its focus amongst an increasingly crowded landscape was on soccer. Since those early days, Fubo has greatly expanded, offering pretty much everything that a sports fan could need and markets itself as such. (Well, except for ESPN that is.)
And while fuboTV hasn’t added Disney to its portfolio, it has made a very important addition to its channel lineup that harkens back to its original mission. Just in time for the Champions League to begin airing games on its networks, fuboTV has added Turner Sports in news that is surely welcome to fans of the beautiful game who use the service.
Of course, with the Turner acquisition, fans won’t just receive the Champions League, but the network’s NBA coverage, March Madness, and much more. Included in the deal is Turner’s other television networks such as CNN, Cartoon Network, and more.
Via MultiChannel:
Having marketed itself as a virtual MVPD focused on sports programming, start-up fuboTV announced an important acquisition Wednesday, Turner Networks.
The deal with Turner’s corporate parent, AT&T and its newly christened WarnerMedia division, brings TNT, TBS, CNN, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, truTV, TCM and HLN to fuboTV’s $45-a-month base package. Boomerang and CNN International are available in fubo’s $50-a-month Extra package, which includes more than 90 channels.
With the addition of TNT and TBS comes national coverage of the NBA, Major League Baseball, pro golf and NCAA March Madness.
The fuboTV base tier has now grown to include 75 channels. Still missing, of course, is a deal with Disney for the most expensive channel in the bundle, ESPN and its associated networks.
Turner shocked everyone when they agreed to a deal for Champions League rights, entering the soccer realm for the first time. So far it’s really early to tell how that deal is going to work out for soccer fans, but with Turner pushing their own service and limiting games on their networks, (46 Champions League games and just 1 Europa League game) it doesn’t exactly sound promising.
The proliferation of soccer rights has been a blessing and a curse in that regard. When fuboTV launched, it was much easier to center most soccer rights in one place. But as the sport has grown, so has the number of players (see: ESPN’s acquisition of the Serie A), and so has the cost. Much like with NBC moving EPL games to a pay service, it still means that soccer fans are going to have to subscribe to multiple services in order to get all the games they want to see. But this addition does mean that those who have fuboTV will be able to watch some Champions League action, and a lot of other sports as well.
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