This week: Tubi gathering attention, more on Bluey
Tubi coming into its own
Over the last few weeks, TV business commentators on Twitter/X have been noting the performance of Tubi, and wondering why the ad-funded streaming platform gets so little US industry attention even though it out-performs Peacock and Max.
Launched in 2014, Tubi was bought by Fox for a reported $400m in 2020, and is currently only available in the US, Canada and Australia where users can watch programming without any subscription in exchange for adverts every 15 minutes or so. From Michael Mulvihill:
And this from Nielsen shows how Tubi is snapping at the heels of Disney+ and beating the other much more talked about platforms of Peacock, Max, Roku, Paramout+ and Pluto.
Entertainment Strategy Guy asked what was responsible for Tubi’s speedy growth (worth reading the full discussion):
While obviously being free is a clear plus, the responses also identified how crucial the content mix and targeting specific audiences has been thus far.
The industry blind spot on Tubi is curious but seems to be coming to an end (indeed, a TV veteran from a UK broadcaster had never heard of platform as recently as a few weeks ago).
And right on cue, Julia Alexander served up a great piece on the ad funded streamer for Puck News (of course, with ‘Tubi or not Tubi’ as its title).
Tubi isn’t just about acquisitions and archive - it is also getting on board with originals. Last summer the platform had 100 original titles and was on its way to 200. In February, it was announced to be getting behind Freemantle’s production of Nicola Coghlan’s Big Mood project, which was commissioned by Channel 4 in the UK.
Beyond the usual streamer categories of films/TV, genres, originals and latest releases/most popular, Tubi also have created a blended EPG which features known channel brands such as Fox, NBC and USA Today alongside channels built around programme titles or themes. For example there are channels for Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, Baywatch, Four in a Bed and Biggest Loser.
Part of the appeal of Tubi’s advertising model in the US could be down to the way video on demand services developed there. In the UK, free-to-air services like the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 launched advertiser funded VOD services (AVOD) back in 2006, and only started introducing paid subscription tiers over a decade later (All4 launched an ad-free option in 2019 and ITVX in 2022). In contrast, in the US, VOD services were subscription models first, and then ad supported came later.
In November, it was announced that David Salmon has been hired to head up its launch in the UK - date to be confirmed.
Other things
Emily Horgan on what Bluey tells us about kids entertainment
One of the greatest responses to a negative review by Lucia Reskin.
Graph of the month
The New York Times has transformed itself from a news organisation into a games/puzzles/cooking newsletter business. Read Matthew Ball’s thread.