The first TV merger of 2025 could be a sign of things to come

Did anyone have this on their media predictions list for 2025?

On Monday, Disney announced that it would combine its Hulu + Live TV platform with the sports-centric Fubo, becoming the majority owner of the new company. As part of the deal, Fubo will drop its lawsuit against the sports streamer Venu — a joint venture between Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery — whose launch has been delayed by the suit.

Industry insiders had been predicting that TV and streaming consolidation would be a trend this year; the stage was set in 2024 for big changes, with Comcast spinning off its cable networks and Paramount integrating its streaming and TV networks distribution teams ahead of its Skydance merger.

But this is the first real sign that those predictions are playing out, experts tell The Current.

“Sub-scale offerings will need the safety nets of larger corporations while Big Tech and legacy media will need to capitalize on specialized interests within larger streaming ecosystems in order to differentiate services, reduce churn, and improve customer satisfaction and loyalty,” says Brandon Katz, entertainment strategist at Parrot Analytics.

Scale for advertisers

Whether it’s subscription streamers like Netflix embracing ad plans or the surge in popularity of free ad-supported television platforms, advertising has become an increasingly important revenue source in the streaming sector.

That means if consolidation ramps up this year, it will present new opportunities for advertisers.

“In theory, streaming consolidation would simplify the task of making ad buys, and make it easier to target the biggest audiences,” says Jon Giegengack, principal and founder of Hub Entertainment Research.

But Katz notes that shaping audience behavior “is not an overnight transition in most cases” (unless you’re Prime Video and turn on advertising for everyone who doesn’t opt out). Netflix, for instance, has taken a slow and steady approach to its advertising business; it reached 70 million monthly users on its ad plan as of November, but in the company’s most recent earnings call, Co-CEO Greg Peters said that improving the ad business would be a priority for “several years coming.”

Fortunately for Hulu + Live/Fubo, it might have momentum on its side. According to subscription analytics company Antenna, Fubo and Hulu + Live’s average monthly sign-ups in the U.S. were 419,000 and 192,000, respectively, from December 2023 to November 2024. That would put the combined sign ups almost on par with YouTube TV’s numbers, which were at 618,000 in that time frame, according to Antenna.

And according to Hub research, consumers are becoming more tolerant of streaming ads, particularly for livestreamed events.

With that in mind, consolidation of this kind provides a unique opportunity for legacy media companies to offer a product to advertisers with a built-in customer base already accustomed to ads, but also to entice new consumers who are looking for an alternative to something like the cable bundle.

“The goal [for Disney] is likely to convert a not-insignificant portion of cord-cutters and cord-nevers into paying customers,” Katz says.

Sports stay winning

Of course, the most attractive aspect of the Hulu + Live TV and Fubo combo for users and advertisers alike might be sports, which are still the biggest programming for traditional TV but which have been increasingly transitioning to streaming.

Not for nothing, Disney announced on Tuesday during the CES conference in Las Vegas that it will be offering live sports ad inventory programmatically. Good timing.

“If you’re a marketer, and you want to have timely messaging in front of a consumer, the only way to do that is live news …or live sports,” says Brian Mandelbaum, co-founder and CEO of Attain.

A Hub survey last year found that up to 40% of sports fans discover and watch TV shows on the same platform that they watch sports, suggesting the Fubo merger could also help drive engagement to Hulu’s live channels.

“While viewers are excited about sports on streaming platforms, they are already feeling the impact of a viewing experience that’s more fragmented,” Hub’s Giegengack says. “So having more sports in one place is a winning proposition, and one that traditional media companies need to seize upon as Netflix, Amazon and YouTube gobble up more sports rights.”