Streaming service fuboTV has removed its Starter plan for new subscribers, effective March 14, 2022. The company’s lowest price plan is now the Pro plan, available for $69.99 a month, a $5 increase over the price of the Starter plan, reports Cord Cutters News. Current subscribers of the Starter plan will be moved to the Pro plan starting on their next billing cycle after May 1. Fubo Pro and Elite subscribers will not be affected. The company is also not making changes to Roku-billed subscriptions at this time.

Starter plan subscribers were notified by email.

“It is always our mission to provide you with a leading package of premium sports, news, and entertainment content, plus innovative product features, while providing value and keeping costs low for our subscribers,” said fuboTV in the email. “In the spirit of that mission, we no longer offer your current plan and will be migrating you to our value-packed Fubo Pro plan.”

Remaining plan options

In addition to price, the biggest differences between the remaining plans – Pro and Elite – are the numbers of cloud DVR storage hours and number of screens. For $5 more a month, Pro subscribers quadruple the amount of cloud DVR storage available while adding more screens to the plan. FuboTV has also added entertainment from GAC Family and the new Magnolia Network, previously available as an add-on for $7.99 a month, live sports and more programming in 4K UHD.

*Provided for comparison. This plan is no longer available for new subscribers.

Package pricing and bundles no longer available

FuboTV is also discontinuing previously-offered bundles and legacy packages, though the company’s FAQs didn’t define what those are. The company did not say if they would offer promotions or bundles in the future. Affected subscribers will also be notified by email.

Changes follow quarterly pricing “experiment”

In February, fuboTV ditched its monthly pricing plans, moving to a quarterly payment structure instead for a brief period of time. The experiment only lasted about two weeks. TV Answer Man Philip Swann speculated that the streaming service was trying to avoid churn from new subscribers who may have joined the service solely to watch the Super Bowl or what remained of the Winter Olympics.

Other live TV streaming services by comparison

FuboTV’s pricing is consistent with other streaming services that also offer live TV, including sports and news.

*Sling TV also offers dozens of add-ons including packages of channels (e.g., News, Lifestyle, AMC+ and other premium channels), starting as low as $3 each per month.

Insider Take

Many of the streaming services, including Netflix and Disney+, have recently increased their monthly pricing, so this move by fuboTV is not a surprise. Though no one likes a price increase, fuboTV followed best practices in communicating the pricing changes to subscribers, as Dr. Mark Stiving of Impact Pricing explained in our “Industry Update: Inflation’s Impact on the Subscription Economy,” published last week. FuboTV explained that their costs have increased, they explained the value they bring to the customer, and they did something nice for the customer – they increased cloud storage, the number of screens, and the channels offered. The streaming service may see some churn from price-sensitive subscribers, but we think it will be minimal.