If you’re a fuboTV customer, you likely can expect to pay more for your streaming TV in 2023.
The live TV streaming service, which is popular with sports fans for its wide array of channels, upped the price for two of its packages on January 6. It also replaced its more expensive package offering with a new tier that is slightly more cost-effective.
The news of the price hike comes after the service announced in December that it had reached agreements with Sinclair on Bally Sports regional sports networks (RSNs) as well as Scripps for channels like ION.
Of course, in December it also dropped 9 AMC channels after a carriage agreement between the two was not renewed.
Oh, and many customers may soon find their bill will increase again in the coming weeks due to a mandatory fee attached to the Bally Sports channels.
Let’s talk a look at what the changes mean for customers.
Many fuboTV Customers Will See a $5 Monthly Increase
Customers that pay for one of the two cheapest tiers of fuboTV are in line for a $5 increase per month.
New customers will see this price increase immediately upon signup, while existing customers are likely to receive notification that their price will go up during the February 2023 billing cycle.
The new 2023 fuboTV subscription pricing structure will look like this:
| Channel Package | Old Monthly Price | New Monthly Price |
| Pro | $69.99 | $74.99 |
| Elite | $79.99 | $84.99 |
| Premier | Not previously available | $94.99 |
| Ultimate | $99.99 | No longer available |
Note: The pricing on the fuboTV Latino package remains unchanged at $32.99 per month.
It’s worth noting that both the Pro and Elite packages retain 1,000 hours of cloud DVR and up to 10 concurrent at-home streams with the package price.
The new Premier package will carry many of the channels of the now defunct Ultimate package, and offers SHOWTIME included.
Regional Sports Access Is Going To Come at an Additional Cost
FuboTV customers who reside in a zip code that receives Bally Sports channels may soon experience a double-whammy when it comes to price increases.
Not only will they face the $5 monthly increase mentioned above, but they may also become exposed to fuboTV’s mandatory Regional Sports Fee. This fee, which is a minimum of $10.99 per month, may push customers’ bills all the way to $86 per month for the Pro package.
In a move that mimics cable company fees, fuboTV requires its users to pay a fee on top of their base subscription to receive local broadcasts of MLB, NHL or NBA games.
The explanation of the fees from fuboTV:
“If you live in a certain area and subscribe to a plan that includes a regional sports network (RSN), your subscription is subject to a monthly regional sports fee. The amount of this fee is based on the number of regional sports networks you receive in your area, and may vary from customer to customer.”
The costs associated:
The Regional Sports Fee is based on the number of RSNs received in your area based on ZIP code.
If you receive:
- One RSN: $10.99 per month will be added to your bill
- Two or more RSNs: $13.99 per month will be added to your bill
You can check to see if your ZIP code requires a fee by searching here. However, it is worth noting that fuboTV had yet to include Bally Sports networks on this list at the time the article was published.
Final Thoughts
When news initially broke that fuboTV would be adding Bally Sports regional sports networks to its platform, many streamers rejoiced.
After all, the options were limited: Either pay for DIRECTV STREAM‘s package that included those channels or pay $20 per month to get them directly from Bally Sports+.
But as the dust settles on yet another price increase for the service and the reality of a mandatory Regional Sports Fee is attached, subscribers are quickly finding out that this may not be the cost-saving news they thought it could be when first announced.
For example, a YouTube TV customer could pay $65 per month for its base package and still pay Bally Sports+ $20 per month for a combined bill of $85 and come out even versus paying fuboTV for its Pro package after the price hike and Regional Sports Fee.
And if fuboTV doesn’t have the price advantage, it’s hard to recommend it over that strategy. YouTube TV remains the live TV streaming choice of money expert Clark Howard and Team Clark’s recommendation for top overall live TV streaming experience.
