vMVPD fuboTV Merges With Virtual-Entertainment Company FaceBank To Form fuboTV Inc.

fuboTV's David Gandler will remain CEO of the company to be headquartered in New York City

One of the industry’s biggest virtual MVPDs, fuboTV, is merging with FaceBank Group, a virtual-entertainment company that specializes in celebrity and sports. As a result of the merger, fuboTV becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of FaceBank, which will be renamed fuboTV Inc.

Current fuboTV CEO David Gandler is to remain in the CEO’s chair of fuboTV Inc., which will be headquartered in New York City.

The deal combines fuboTV’s direct-to-consumer live-TV-streaming platform with FaceBank’s technology-driven IP in sports, movies, and live performances. The goal is to create a content-delivery platform for traditional and future-form IP. 

“The business combination of FaceBank Group and fuboTV accelerates our ability to build a category-defining company and supports our goal to provide consumers with a technology-driven cable-TV replacement service for the whole family,” Gandler said in an official release. “With our growing businesses in the U.S. and recent beta launches in Canada and Europe, fuboTV is well-positioned to achieve its goal of becoming a world-leading live-TV-streaming platform for premium sports, news, and entertainment content. In the current COVID-19 environment, stay-at-home stocks make perfect sense. We plan to accelerate our timing to uplist to a major exchange as soon as practicable. We look forward to working with [FaceBank founder] John [Textor] and his team of creative visionaries.”

According to the official announcement, fuboTV will look toward global expansion with FaceBank’s Nexway AG, a global ecommerce and payment platform with a business presence in 180 countries, accepting payments in roughly 140 currencies. fuboTV has already made a move into international markets, launching its service in Spain in 2018.

“As a tech-driven IP company, FaceBank was looking to find the perfect delivery platform for its celebrity- and consumer-driven content, with a dynamic user interface that could support the global consumers’ rapidly evolving practices of content consumption,” added FaceBank founders Textor and Alex Bafer. “David and his team have a clear vision of the future, and fuboTV’s technology is second to none among the disruptor class of content delivery — a perfect match for FaceBank Group.”

The major stockholders of fuboTV and the board of directors of both companies approved the transaction, which is expected to close during the first quarter.