Tubi now equal to Disney+, Cinematic (continuing) to trump streaming releases
Tubi now equal to Disney+
To add to the pile of ‘things the media doesn’t talk about that much but should’, Nielsen’s The Gauge’ monthly US TV & streaming report shows Tubi with the same share as Disney+ for the month of May. Free to access ad-funded platforms obviously have a lower barrier to entry than subscription services, so this isn’t comparing like with like. However, it is noticeable that when you combine the other FAST (Free Ad-Supported TV) brands featured - PlutoTV, Roku plus Tubi - how together they are snapping at the heels of Disney+, Max, Paramount+ and Peacock in terms of audience share.
It appears Tubi enjoys playing on this low-fi reputation, if their X/Twitter bio is anything to go by:
In recent weeks and months I’ve brought Tubi up with a range of UK TV people - producers, senior executives and the like - just to find out their opinions and what their strategies are for the platform. It has been surprising how few have even heard of it at all. Safe to assume this will change when Tubi launches in the UK - date to be confirmed. Even so, it is quite something to see a platform that generates relatively little media noise playing with the big established beasts of the TV industry in this way.
The other notable platform that generates so little chatter relative to its popularity with audiences is You Tube; shown here with 5.9% share in the graph above. And this is only YouTube ‘main’ as Nielsen calls it - it excludes the subscriptions to the YouTubeTV service that is not yet available in the UK.
Cinematic release repeatedly trumps streaming film premieres
Entertainment Strategy Guy has done a whole series of (excellent) posts about how premiering films on streaming platforms doesn’t cut it against the age-old model of cinematic followed by streaming, broadcast, secondary sales etc.
The success of Inside Out 2 reinforces that position, having done $130m at box so far, comparison to the anaemic revenues for streaming-first titles such as Turning Red (something like $12m at box?).
Although as Rich Greenfield from LightShed hinted at, perhaps we had just forgotten how big successful kids animation titles were pre-Covid?
Entertainment Strategy Guy’s deep dive into exploring these two models is worth your time, and to tempt you, just look at this single graph:
Is it any wonder than streaming only revenues aren’t replacing what had gone before?
Graph of the week
Antenna Data’s State of Subscriptions Q2 2024 report is out, and includes the above graphic showing the gains and losses of subscribers each quarter for streaming platforms. For years now, the noise has all been about total subscriber numbers and growth, but the volume of churn under the hood is significant. That must equate to a huge amount of marketing money being spent to keep filling that (leaky?) bucket.