fuboTV acquires Molotov in €164 million deal

US streaming company fuboTV has announced the acquisition of French SVOD Molotov. 

fuboTV will pay €164.3 million for Molotov, which currently has 17 million registered users across France and select markets in Africa. 

The company, which offers a sports-oriented cord-cutting service in the US, said that it will leverage Molotov’s “​​unique direct-to-consumer live TV streaming service” along with its complementary AVOD platform Mango. 

In a press release, fuboTV said that Molotov will introduce a freemium model to its business, with Molotov’s strategy and low-cost marketing acting as a funnel for international growth.

Molotov will continue to be based in Paris and led by co-founder JeanDavid Blanc who has been named president of Molotov. Its approximately 100 employees will remain with the company, with plans to expand its Parisian engineering team.

David Gandler, co-founder and CEO, fuboTV, said: “Molotov has set the benchmark for ad-supported and subscription streaming platforms in Europe. We believe this strategic asset will help accelerate our goal of achieving global scale and operating leverage as we continue to improve and innovate on our live, interactive streaming TV experience for sports fans and their families.”

Blanc said: “We’re thrilled to scale Molotov with fuboTV with whom we share the same ambition and vision for a live TV streaming platform. Our goal is to provide consumers with a best-in-class streaming experience with premium television content on a global scale.”

The announcement came from fuboTV alongside its Q3 earnings where it announced it has surpassed 1 million subscribers.