New York quoted TV sports streaming company fuboTV is to acquire the French streaming platform Molotov SAS as part of its strategy of international expansion. The cash and shares deal is worth €164m.
Molotov aggregates live programming from 200 sources and allows users to stream onto any device. The company has both a live streaming service and an advertising-funded video on demand platform, Mango. It operates in French speaking territories as well as in France. Together, the two offers attract 4m monthly users. FuboTV intends to leverage the freemium sales model of Molotov across its services where users are attracted by free to watch programming, and then potentially convert to subscription packages.
The combined entities will also be well placed to work on personalisation of their services, giving consumers their preferred mix of TV, film, documentaries, children’s programming and sports. FuboTV operates across the US and Canada, and launched into Spain in 2018. It also has a gaming subsidiary.
