US media company 21st Century Fox, pan-European pay-television broadcaster Sky and US media group Scripps Networks Interactive have participated in a $55m (€49.1m) funding round for US over-the-top streaming service FuboTV.
The Series C round has been led by Europe and New York-based venture capital fund Northzone, which will take a board position at the company. Both 21st Century Fox and Sky were previously part of FuboTV’s Series B round. The total investment raised to date by FuboTV is now more than $75m.
With the closing of this fundraising round, Fubo said it plans to expand its basic line-up with new programming offerings; grow its engineering and product teams to continue to improve its back-end technology and build additional features focusing on its users; as well as expanding marketing efforts.
Pär-Jörgen Pärson, partner at Northzone, who is joining the FuboTV board, said: “Fubo is at the apex of capturing a fundamental shift in consumer behaviour. Just like we saw as early investors in Spotify within the music business, this will be potentially an even bigger game changer as television consumption moves online to mobile devices, computers and TV apps.
“Sports represents prime real estate in the television market, with a massive and engaged audience share, and Fubo has already achieved market-leading coverage of the best live sports content.”
Launched in January 2015 as a football streaming service, FuboTV has evolved into a provider of sports, entertainment, and news channels. The company launched its expanded Fubo Premier entry-level bundle in April with a line-up of 55-plus channels, including 31 that feature sports content.
In the US, FuboTV’s portfolio of channels include the in-house platforms of English Premier League football club Chelsea and Portuguese Primeira Liga outfit Benfica.