fuboTV, the sports-focused OTT TV service, said it has raised a $75 million “D” round that includes AMC Networks, along with existing investors 21st Century Fox, Luminari Capital, Northzone, Sky and the former Scripps Networks Interactive (now part of Discovery).
The latest round, raised less than a year after it locked in a $55 million “C” round, takes fuboTV’s total funding past the $150 million mark.
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fuboTV said it will use the funds to invest in and grow its engineering and product teams, add new features, boost marketing activity, and secure new content for offerings in the U.S. and abroad.
The company noted that it has grown its staff by 60% in the past ten months, and plans to double its office space and staff by the end of 2017. It also has plans to open a second headquarters in a state and location to be announced later that will complement its 17,000 square foot HQ in midtown New York.
The fresh funds also arrive as fuboTV continues to face off against a growing mix of well-heeled OTT TV competitors that include DirecTV Now, Sony’s PlayStation Vue, Hulu, YouTube TV, Sling TV as well as Philo, which launched a national entertainment-focused service in November. T-Mobile is also developing a new OTT TV service in the wake of its $325 million acquisition of Layer3 TV, as is a startup called Vidgo.
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fuboTV crossed 100,000 subscribers last September, and says it has seen double-digit growth since. It has distribution deals with Consolidated Communications and the National Cable Television Cooperative.
With respect to live locals, fuboTV says its Fox coverage spans 87% of U.S. homes, and 72% for NBC and 68% for CBS.
“This latest capital raise underlines a seismic shift in viewing behavior as consumers migrate from traditional platforms to streaming television,” David Gandler, fuboTV’s CEO and co-founder, said in a statement. “The pay TV space is experiencing a renaissance, and the company will use this investment to continue to drive technological advancement in video quality and latency, machine learning and predictive analytics to deliver a best-in-class experience.”
