Alisa Bowen takes over as fuboTV CEO on Friday, replacing co-founder David Gandler after Disney installed her to run the stand-alone streaming pay-TV company. The move lands with Disney holding 70% control of Fubo, leaving subscribers under a different operating hand without changing the service’s separate status.
Bowen is stepping in from Disney+, where she was most recently president, and she enters Fubo as the company comes out of a reverse stock split and a Thursday session in which the stock stayed close to its $9.56 closing level in after-hours trading. For holders, the immediate issue is governance, not a product reset: the control structure now sits with Disney, while Fubo remains a separate company.
Disney put Bowen in charge
2015 is the year Gandler co-founded Fubo, giving him the longest-running claim on the company’s operating identity before being replaced as CEO. Bowen was a founding member of Disney’s streaming leadership team and helped launch and scale Disney+, + and Hulu before moving into the top role at Fubo.
2018 is the period when Disney assumed operational control of Hulu as part of the 21st Century Fox acquisition, and that experience now matters inside a company that sits inside Disney’s 70% control. The practical takeaway for Fubo’s users is that strategic direction now runs through a much larger streaming operator with a history of integrating services rather than building them in isolation.
Fubo and Hulu in 2026
6.2 million subscribers is the combined total Fubo and Hulu + Live TV entered 2026 with, a base that gives the live-TV bundle more scale than Fubo had on its own. That figure matters because it shows why Disney would want a single executive with direct experience across its streaming stack overseeing a business that still competes in a crowded live-TV market.
More than 10 million subscribers is the scale of YouTube TV, while the rest of the vMVPD sector has been struggling outside that leader. Fubo’s placement in that market means Bowen inherits a business that must keep growing without the cushion of a broad legacy cable base.
David Gandler and the split
2025 is the year Fubo filed an antitrust lawsuit against Disney over the attempted launch of Venu with Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery, and that dispute ended in a settlement that gave Disney control of Fubo. An industry source said, “The Disney culture didn’t match,” and added that David was frustrated with what seemed to be Disney’s almost intention to not grow the vMVPD business.
Friday is when Bowen officially starts, and that puts the next phase in her hands from day one. The open issue for Fubo readers is whether Disney’s control leads to a more aggressive push in live TV or a tighter, more measured run at a business that has already been through litigation, restructuring and a leadership change.
