(Photo Illustration by Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Versant Media, the collection of cast-off NBCUniversal cable networks now an independent company, is betting that live sports, including a new deal with Germany’s Bundesliga, can help it turn Fandango into something more than a place to get movie tickets.
The company has quietly evolved its Fandango At Home streaming operation into something more than that, a FAST platform just called Fandango and designed to compete with Tubi and the Roku Channel. This week, the rechristened offering launched a hefty marketing campaign around the phrase “We love free.”
It positions Fandango, long a place to pre-buy movie tickets or get premium digital downloads, as a bargain destination for TV, competing with outlets such as the Roku Channel, Tubi, and Pluto, as well as FAST offerings from many of the big TV manufacturers, including Walmart-owned Vizio, LG and Samsung.
The company also announced a deal with Germany’s top pro soccer league, the Bundesliga, for more than 300 matches over the next five years, to be split between Fandango and Versant’s USA Network, USA Sports President Matthew Hong told CNBC (another Versant holding).
Hong said the Bundesliga deal should help the company when it comes time to negotiate carriage deals with cable providers, and with potential advertisers. It also ties nicely with the company’s existing partnership with the English Premiere League, generally considered the world’s best pro league.
Both the EPL and Bundesliga are set to launch their 2026-27 season at the end of August, with interest in the United States expected to be sky high, boosted by record viewership of the World Cup over the past month. Many stars of the top World Cup teams star the rest of the year with clubs in either the EPL or Bundesliga.
“It’s been hugely beneficial for us,” Hong said of the EPL deal. “European soccer and soccer generally is up and to the right in the United States.”
Hong also differentiated, if subtly, the opportunity for soccer fans in watching Bundesliga on Fandango: no subscription fee. That’s unlike the North American top pro league, MLS, with its Apple TV deal. For that matter, other slices of European club, including more EPL games, stayed behind with the subscription Peacock service when Versant spun out of Comcast early in the year.
“You don’t need a paid account to stream the games,” said Hong. “You’ll be able to watch multiple hundreds of Bundesliga matches in a way I can’t imagine could be any easier.”
The Bundesliga is considered another of Europe’s best pro leagues, long dominated by Bayern Munich, though Bayer Leverkeusen won the championship in 2023-24. .
More generally, Versant’s decision to build up and slightly rename Fandango’s streaming video platform gives the company a chance to keep a portion of its audience that otherwise might watch its shows on competing TV operating systems. Versant will be able to sell ads, cross-promote and grab at least some additional viewer data that can be valuable for both programming and advertising.
The new service will be bolstered by 3,500 hours of programming from Versant’s cable networks, which also include the Golf Channel, MS Now (previously MSNBC), SyFy, Oxygen and E!. Versant also owns digital properties Rotten Tomatoes, Sports Engine, GolfPass and GolfNow.
Fandango gets 50 million visitors a month coming for movie tickets or premium digital downloads for recently released theatrical movies. The company is hopeing to leverage that slew of visitors seeking high-end movies to keep some around for the streaming service.
Live sports are another way to attract tune-in and retain viewers, which is why the Bundesliga deal is intriguing. Mix in live news content from MS Now and CNBC, and Versant’s FAST offering starts to feel a bit more like what Fox has so reliably and profitably harvested with its news and sports holdings on broadcast and cable.
Hong suggested the company will continue to look for other sports rights, even as he acknowledged the skyrocketing prices for TV’s most valuable programming, the NFL, aren’t in Versant’s budget. But, he said, “everything else is fair game” as Versant is “on the lookout for deals.”