fuboTV Inc., the leading sports-first live TV streaming platform, announced it has closed its acquisition of France’s number one live TV streaming company, Molotov SAS. The acquisition, announced on November 9, 2021, was previously expected to close in the first quarter of 2022.
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The synergies between fuboTV and Molotov’s technology and teams are expected to enable both companies to continue on paths of accelerated growth in their respective home countries and leverage their capabilities to improve both business models with greater scale. Molotov’s unique offerings include its direct-to-consumer live TV streaming service and its advertising video-on-demand (AVOD) service, Mango, which combined total nearly four million monthly active users in France (September 2021). The Molotov streaming platform was designed to be easily localized for new markets and languages, facilitating efficient launches in additional countries as fuboTV considers expanding its global footprint and launching its interactive sports and entertainment streaming platform on a global scale.
Molotov will continue to be based in Paris and led by JeanDavid Blanc who has been named president and will report directly to David Gandler, fuboTV’s co-founder and CEO. Molotov’s approximately 100 employees will remain with the Company and fuboTV plans to further expand the product and engineering team in Paris. Molotov was founded in 2015 by Blanc (founder of AlloCiné) and Pierre Lescure (co-founder of Canal+).
Commented Gandler: “With today’s closing, fuboTV has acquired a very talented team and an innovative tech stack that can help accelerate our development in the U.S. with a judicious deployment of minimal incremental investment dollars. At the same time, this combination will provide technology to grow Molotov’s business model. Over the long term, we believe the synergies of the combined company will give us operating leverage to build a scalable global platform as we continue on our mission to deliver the world’s leading interactive sports and entertainment live TV experience.”
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Molotov brings to fuboTV’s international business a freemium model which leverages a free tier to drive user growth and upsell customers to premium add-on channel packages. fuboTV plans to leverage Molotov’s strategy and low-cost marketing funnel for international growth while implementing fuboTV’s marketing technology to accelerate Molotov subscriptions.
Molotov has distinguished itself in France with a unique entertainment experience focused on live and on-demand TV series, movies, documentaries and kids content. fuboTV will look to provide Molotov with sports content and sports-first product features. The newly combined streaming platform has the potential to offer a robust and personalized product experience for everyone in the household. This well-rounded offering will also enable fuboTV to customize local content offerings as it enters new markets.
fuboTV currently operates in the U.S. and Canada and was the first U.S. virtual MVPD to enter Europe with its 2018 launch in Spain. Molotov operates in France, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Cameroon and expects to launch soon in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Company also operates in Morocco through a partnership with Maroc telecom.
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