• by Alex Weprin , October 15, 2018

The streaming video service FuboTV says it is nearing 250,000 subscribers, up from 100,000 subscribers a year ago. 

The figure may seem small compared to streaming giants like Hulu or Netflix. But as virtual multichannel video provider (vMVPD), FuboTV operates at a higher price point, with an emphasis on live content, particularly live sports.

The company also says its annual run rate as of September 2018 was $102 million, up from $28 million a year earlier, while its average revenue per user (ARPU) was up to $40, from $22 a year earlier.

FuboTV is competing in an increasingly crowded space, where its competition is coming from technology and telecom giants. AT&T-owned DirecTV Now and Dish’s Sling TV lead the streaming bundle market with 2.4 million and 1.8 million subscribers, respectively (per MoffettNathanson).

FuboTV, while backed by a number of media companies -- including Fox and AMC -- is an independent in a field of competitors owned by companies with big pockets.

The goal for FuboTV (and for most of its competition) is to replace the cable or satellite bundle, either through a lower price point or a better customer experience.

To that end, the company says its time spent per user was 51 hours in September 2018. A year earlier, that figure was 11 hours, suggesting that its new subscribers are the consumers the company is hoping to lure into its bundle.

“What our team of less than 150 employees has built — from the ground up, despite our competition having access to tens of thousands of engineers alone — impresses me every day. It should put the streaming TV industry on notice,” says David Gandler, FuboTV’s cofounder-CEO, in a statement sharing the data with Digital News Daily.

Separately, Google has made an aggressive entry into the space with its YouTube TV product, as has Hulu with Hulu with Live TV. Sony’s PlayStation Vue is also a competitor.