FuboTV, which last night raised the price of its programming packages, has also raised the regional sports fee in markets where it carries at least one RSN.
The streamer’s new regional sports fee in markets with two or more RSNs is $13.99 a month, an increase from $8.99 a month. In markets where FuboTV carries only one RSN, the regional sports fee is now $10.99, an increase from $5-6 a month. (You can see what your fee would be here.)
FuboTV does not charge a regional sports fee in markets where it does not carry a regional sports network.
The sports fee increase coupled with FuboTV’s decision to raise programming prices seems at least partially designed to offset the company’s new pact with Bally Sports which has one of the industry’s highest carriage rates. FuboTV says it will add the 19 Bally Sports RSNs in the coming weeks.
However, the two price hikes will reduce FuboTV’s competitive edge over DIRECTV Stream, the only other live streaming service that carries the Bally Sports channels.
Later this month, DIRECTV Stream will require subscribers to pay a minimum of $100 a month for a package that includes Bally Sports. But with the two price increases, a FuboTV subscriber could now be forced to pay as much as $89 a month ($75 for the base programming package; $14 for the regional sports fee) for a plan that includes Bally Sports. That is just $11 a month less than DIRECTV Stream.
Prior to the two price increases, FuboTV’s cheapest programming package combined with its highest regional sports fee came to $79, which would have been $21 less than DIRECTV Stream.
Below is our story from last night on FuboTV’s new pricing for programming packages:
FuboTV Raises Base Price to $74.99 a Month After Bally Deal
FuboTV has raised the price of its lowest-priced package (the 147-channel Pro) from $69.99 a month to $74.99 a month.
The move comes just 16 days after the live streaming service announced a carriage deal with the Bally Sports regional sports networks which are among the most expensive to carry in the industry. FuboTV says the Bally channels will be added sometime this month.
FuboTV today also increased the price of its second lowest-priced plan, the 208-channel Elite, from $79.99 a month to $84.99 a month. The $94.99 a month Premier plan, which has 217 channels, will replace the Ultimate plan which was $99.99 a month. However, the Premier plan will not include Fubo’s sports add-on plan which costs $10.99 a month and includes the NFL RedZone Channel among others.
It’s unclear if the new prices will affect existing customers as well. The TV Answer Man has asked FuboTV for a clarification and will report back here if we receive one.
Update: A FuboTV spokesperson issued this statement last night:
In addition to announcing the Bally channels, FuboTV recently lost nine AMC-owned channels when its carriage agreement expired. The nine channels are: AMC, AMC Premiere, BBC America, BBC World News, El Gourmet, IFC, Mas Chic, Sundance TV and WE TV.
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You keep paying, they’ll keep raising! I cut the cord years ago and I am not suffering from any content deficit. I had the same ISP since the mid 1990’s. About 4 years ago they went on a “Fleece The Loyal Customers” campaign. One price increase after the next – 2, sometimes 3 per year under different names like “Network Enhancement Fees”. The only reason that I hesitated for so long to dump them was my email address had been tied to them for 24 years and associated with many online accounts. I finally bit the bullet and an hour or 2 per day over the course of 2 weeks switching to a generic email. Each one had to be tested. When done, I dumped the old ISP, went with a new one only for internet (at that time $53.50 less per month for just internet) with much better speeds and reliability (up times 99.9%). I stream my entertainment and have an OTA antenna for all local stations including sports (local teams and games). I do not pay any rent on equipment either. I have yet to see a price increase with the new ISP. I got in on a promotion with an insane price that has not changed.
So I live in Chicago – nothing has changed in terms of coverage (Marquee for Cubs games and NBC Sports Chicago for Sox/Blackhawk games), yet the monthly fee and RSN fee goes up?
Fubo offers 7-day trials. You can get unlimited email addresses from gmail and others, many credit cards offer single use credit card numbers. Sign up, cancel, rinse and repeat. DirecTV 5-days trials. Youtube TV also offers 7-day trials, however no RSNs. It is not unreasonable to keep trying services until you figure out which one is the best for you. 🙂