Fox said it has completed its upfront, managing increases in dollar volume for its linear and digital properties in what was expected to be a difficult market for legacy networks.

“Our focused portfolio of market-leading properties in sports, news, entertainment and streaming delivered year-over-year growth in both linear and digital advertising commitments as well as growth in overall portfolio pricing in this year’s upfront,” Fox president, advertising sales, marketing and brand partnerships Jeff Collins said in a statement.

“Notably, we saw rapidly accelerating double-digit volume growth on Tubi, which is testament to its incredible momentum in the streaming marketplace,” Collins added. 

Demand was strong enough that Fox elected to sell more inventory in the upfront than in past years, rather than take a chance on pricing in the scatter market, which has been weak the past few years, sources familiar with the situation said.

This was the first upfront for Collins, who succeeded Marianne Gambelli as head of Fox ad sales earlier this year.

Fortunately for Collins, Fox’s portfolio does not include cable entertainment networks. With cord-cutting reducing viewership and programmers moving original programming from their cable networks to their streaming platforms, demand was down.

What ad buyers wanted was live programming — sports and news — and Fox has tons of that.

Buyers said demand was up for NFL games, where Fox generates the highest ratings on Sunday afternoons/ Fox also has college football, with its Saturday-afternoon games being joined by a package of Friday-night games this season.

In February Fox will air the Super Bowl, the biggest advertising event of the year. Buyers said Fox was hoping to be substantially sold out by the beginning of September, with prices ranging as high as $7.2 million for a 30-second spot.

Broadcast primetime volume on Fox was surprisingly strong, especially compared to cable’s problems.

Also Read: Fox Shares Fall Premiere Dates, Including Rookie Shows ‘Rescue: HI-Surf’ and ‘Universal Basic Guys’

With the recent wild political news, viewing of Fox News Channel was way up in July, which fueled ad demand. Fox has sold election packages for advertisers that are not shy about having their commercials appear in political coverage. Other advertisers have opted to either wait to start their flights after the election is over or to appear in the more lifestyle-oriented programming running on Fox News.

Fox’s Tubi streaming platform managed to score increased ad commitments despite heightened competition in streaming caused by the entrance of Amazon Prime Video into the market, individuals familiar with the situation said..

While a flood of inventory from Prime Video threatened to depress price in the market, Tubi’s volume continued to increase commensurate with its continuing double-digit viewership growth.

Also on the digital side, Fox’s new offering that lets advertisers buy audiences across Fox properties saw significant growth, according to Collins. OneFox “delivered a 3 times increase in volume over last year,” he said.

Earlier this month, NBCUniversal said it had finished its upfront, registering an increase in volume across broadcast, cable and streaming.

NBCU said that sports was a strong seller, along with Peacock and its digital platforms. 

Buyers said that advertisers were looking for flexibility from the networks. 

“It’s not like the old days when we had to rush to get our money down on programming,” one media agency executive said.  “With so many options out there, there are new ways to reach customers.” 

While the supply of entertainment inventory was high, ad dollars were chasing sports. 

The lack of urgency meant the framework for deals was reached weeks ago, but both sides had time to iron out details — which should work out better for the advertisers.

Despite an increase in programmatic buying, the upfront will remain an important part of the TV buying process.

“The legacy media networks still want to count their dollars and get that down in May and June, so I don’t think it will go away completely,” the agency executives said. “But people are more active throughout the year because they want more flexibility and there are more options.”

As the broader domestic usage of free ad-supported streaming explodes, the “couch potatoes” of Paramount’s Pluto TV seem to be getting left in the dust. 

According to Nielsen's latest monthly U.S. TV usage market-share tracker, The Gauge, the FAST accounted for just 0.8% of overall domestic television consumption in June, vs. 0.9% in June of 2023.

Conversely, Fox’s rival FAST service, Tubi, has seen its market share grow from 1.4% to 2% over that same 12-month span, and The Roku Channel has expanded from 1% to 1.5%. 

Free, ad-supported YouTube, the unchallenged leader of all streaming platforms, has seen its market share grow from 8.8% to 9.9% in one year. 

As Lightshed Partners analyst Richard Greenfield noted on Tuesday, Paramount was first to recognize the potential of free ad-supported streaming and was the first to move into the space, paying $340 million to acquire startup Pluto TV in January 2019. 

“Add Pluto to the challenges facing Paramount as part of the in-process Skydance transaction,” Greenfield wrote.

For his part, Greenfield wondered if Tubi's commitment to a Netflix-like, algorithmically driven UX versus Pluto TV’s traditional, pay TV program-guide-like interface is key to the growing chasm between the two ad-based services. 

“Pluto feels more like the TV guide of the past compared to the algorithm-driven feeds consumers are increasingly accustomed to,” Greenfield wrote. “We have to believe the power of Tubi’s algorithm is enabling it to flourish.”

He added that has Roku begins to surface an increasing amount of its content in the same algorithmic way, learning user habits and responding to them over time, “it will be interesting to see if its share of time spent ticks up materially over the coming year. We are also curious to see if Pluto begins to pivot toward the Tubi business model following the Skydance transaction next year.”

Fox has launched Tubi in the United Kingdom, looking to spread the fast-growing free ad-supported streaming platform in international territories.

U.K. viewers will be able to access a free Tubi app on every major connected TV platform, iOS and Android smartphones and on the web, the company said.

The service will feature more than 20,000 movies and TV episodes on demand, including Tubi Originals as well as content from The Walt Disney Co., Lionsgate, NBCUniversal and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Since being acquired in 2020 for $440 million, Tubi has been one of Fox’s fastest growing businesses. 

In May, it tied with Disney Plus, accounting for 1.8% of all television usage in the U.S., according to Nielsen, and the fastest growing streaming service since Nielsen began issuing monthly assets more than a year ago.

During Fox’s fiscal third quarter earnings call, the company said Tubi’s revenues increased 22% with a 36% jump in total view time and 20% growth in in monthly active users to nearly 80 million in the U.S.

“Tubi has spent the last decade honing our approach to vast, free and fun streaming in North America, and we feel that now is the perfect time to bring that recipe to U.K. audiences,” Tubi CEO Anjali Sud said. “We are launching with one of the largest and most diverse content libraries in the U.K., designed to indulge viewers in everything from blockbusters to original stories to hidden gems. Most importantly, we're committed to listening to what resonates with U.K. fans, and bringing them more and more of what they love.”

With cord-cutters having difficulty finding content they want to watch, Tubi uses machine learning to deliver a personalized experience that highlights shows and movies likely to resonate with viewers.

The U.K. launch will be backed with an advertising campaign starting July 15 with the slogan, “Watch what you actually want to watch.”

“At a time when traditional programming feels homogenous and when finding what to watch feels like a chore, Tubi has been effective at delivering delight beyond the monoculture with content that appeals to diverse and vibrant fandoms,” Tubi executive VP and managing director of international David Salmon said. “We believe that we can build a brilliantly broad, culturally ambitious offering that puts U.K. audiences back at the center and makes it fun and easy to enjoy great entertainment from around the world.” 

Fox said it has expanded its relationship with The Trade Desk.

Fox’s streaming platform Tubi was an early adopter of The Trade Desk’s Unified ID 2.0 identity system and OpenPath technology.

Fox is using UID2 to give advertisers the tools to transact on addressable inventory with greater precision, and OpenPath to provide advertisers more direct access to its premium inventory.

Trade Desk clients can now get access to more of Fox’s ad inventory through an integration between The Trade Desk and AdRise, the ad-tech platform for CTV and linear inventory developed by Tubi.

AdRise was acquired by Fox as part of its $440 million purchase of Tubi in 2020. AdRise processes both linear and CTV inventory across Fox Entertainment, Fox Sports, Fox News Media and Tubi.

“Our partnership with Fox represents a win-win for advertisers and the industry at large. It not only creates value for our shared advertisers but moves the industry forward towards an addressable and efficient marketplace,“ The Trade Desk CEO and founder Jeff Green said. “By combining Unified ID 2.0 and OpenPath, Fox’s forward-leaning approach to innovation represents a major opportunity for advertisers to apply data to their media investments on the premium, open internet.

“Fox is pioneering price discovery and helping create the new identity fabric of the open internet,” Green said. “This latest innovation in the long-term partnership between Fox and The Trade Desk represents a step forward for our industry.”

The new integrations of The Trade Desk into Fox’s platform is designed to help Fox sell more ads and help advertisers reach target audiences and measure campaign performance.

“The commitment to the deepening of our relationship with The Trade Desk highlights our belief in their vision for premium content and a more open Internet. Through our market leading brands and our AdRise technology platform, Fox and Tubi are at the forefront of enabling new and impactful ways for advertisers to reach and engage with authenticated audiences, at scale,” said Paul Cheesbrough, CEO of Fox’s Tubi Media Group.

“Our extended partnership with The Trade Desk builds upon many successful years of working with each other and signals the next chapter — one where we move towards a more deeply integrated marketplace and collaborate around key industry issues like transparency and identity,” Cheesbrough said.

Fox FAST Tubi on Monday announced a slate of upcoming projects for the upcoming 2024-25 "season." (Yes, apparently FAST platforms now have seasons.)

Tubi's "Upfront" programming announcement includes these shows:

* Tubi’s Purple Carpet will be rolled out for the first time as part of Fox's Super Bowl pregame coverage in New Orleans next February. Model and actress Olivia Culpo will be Tubi's official correspondent, celebrating the culture surrounding football’s biggest event by adding the spectacle of fashion and entertainment to the mix. 

* A Tubi original movie, The QB Bad Boy and Me, will be based on a breakout Wattpad young-adult novel, which has more than 31 million reads. It tells the story of Dallas (Siena Agudong, who stars in Netflix's Resident Evil), a burdened but headstrong dancer, who is determined to get into the best dance school in the country — her late mother’s alma mater. However, that dream is suddenly derailed when the cheeky yet secretly grieving football star, Drayton (Noah Beck), crashes into her life. 

* Tubi will also premiere the workplace comedy The Z-Suite, starring Lauren Graham, in 2025. The generational comedy set in a New York ad agency is written by Katie O’Brien (The Santa Clauses, Teachers),  who also serves as show-runner.

Fox announced last week that it has surpassed 80 million active users, and the media conglomerate is making investments in original content to keep the viewership growing. 

“Tubi is committed to culturally relevant storytelling that speaks to the cordless generation,” said Adam Lewinson, chief content officer at Tubi, in a statement. “From culture driven pre-game coverage for the Big Game, to a fan favorite movie based on a breakout YA novel, to the amazing Lauren Graham headlining a workplace comedy steeped in generational conflict, Tubi’s ’24-’25 slate is as compelling for our audience as it is desirable for advertisers.”

Tubi now has 80 million average monthly users, up from 67 million a year ago, parent company Fox said, with a 36% year-over-year uptick in platform usage driving revenue up by more than 22% from January to March.

That’s in the face of a down fiscal Q3 for Fox’s broader television segment, which saw a 22% decrease in quarterly revenues due to the lack of the Super Bowl.

Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch said in the company’s quarterly financial report that those losses would have been even greater if they weren’t “offset by continued growth at Tubi.”

Also read: Fox Has Net Income of $666 Million in 3rd Quarter

In the latest iteration of Nielsen’s “The Gauge” report, which tracks market share for total U.S. TV viewing, Tubi accounted for 1.6% of all U.S. TV watching in March.

That puts Tubi ahead of other ad-supported streaming services including Peacock, Roku Channel and Pluto TV, and even subscription streaming platforms like Max and Paramount Plus.

Murdoch noted that in March 2023, the Tubi accounted for only 1% of total American viewing.

“Tubi finished only marginally behind Disney Plus in market share,” Murdoch said, noting that Tubi's expansion was “faster than any streaming service during the same time.”

Murdoch also revealed on the company’s earnings conference call that 90% of Tubi viewing is on-demand, meaning customers seek out and actively engage with the content they’re watching, rather than just turning on a live channel.

“It’s very important,” Murdoch said, "because when the viewing comes on demand as opposed to passively sitting back and watching our FAST channels, that’s much more valuable to advertisers.

“We are looking forward to showcasing Tubi’s strengths at next week’s upfronts,” Murdoch added.

Fox's ad-supported streaming service, Tubi, has launched Stubios, a new program that will let four aspiring filmmakers create content based on viewer feedback.

Created in partnership with Issa Rae’s talent management company ColorCreative, Stubios will seek to identify four “Stubiorunners,” who will each lead their own series with the help of viewer-input.

Based on viewership, these creators' projects will have to reach a certain engagement threshold before they are automatically greenlit for their next project, meaning each series will have to fight for widespread appeal.

Tubi’s first group of creatives begins programming on Tuesday with Lady London, a viral American songwriter and rapper.

The second and third creatives have yet to be revealed by Tubi, but applications to assume the mantle as the fourth Stubiorunner will open Tuesday, with no barriers to entry.

Tubi points to that lack of obstacles as a major reason it believes Stubios will succeed.

“Our business model is centered on removing barriers, fostering expression, and listening to people,” said Dana Balch, Tubi’s director of product and consumer communications, in a phone call with Next TV.

“It doesn’t look like a lot of typical platforms,” said Balch. “But this is our response to a changing media and entertainment landscape that’s really grounded in what’s been successful for Tubi over the years: giving opportunities to independent filmmakers that want a direct path to break into the industry.”

Balch also called Rae’s story, which began with a Youtube web series called Awkward Black Girl, the “best example of what Stubios could create.”

“She had her own show on YouTube — not because she wanted to be a YouTube — but because it was the platform without barriers,” explained Balch. “It’s sad there’s not more Issa Rae’s out there already, but we feel like Stubios is a model that’s likely to find and source creatives of that caliber.”

Balch also said that the vertically-oriented swipe feature will help users feel engaged like they do on social platforms.

“We know that younger generations are spending more time on social media rather than streaming, so we’re looking for an engaging way to marry all of that.”

Fox’s ad-supported streaming service, Tubi, announced Wednesday that it has partnered with U.K. sports streaming platform DAZN to launch FAST channels in the U.S. and Canada that will bring live sports to the service.

The licensing agreement will deliver mixed martial arts-themed channels DAZN TV and DAZN Ringside, as well as DAZN Women’s Football to the apps of  U.S. and Canadian streaming consumers.

DAZN Women's Football is a 24/7 channel delivering a mix of live and classic soccer matches from origins including the UEFA Women’s Champions League, while featuring NWSL stars including Lindsay Horan, Catarina Macario and Mia Fishel.

DAZN Ringside includes live undercards; live before-the-bell action. including weigh-ins; as well as more than 300 hours of archival replays, from DAZN's partners in sanctioned blood sport, Matchroom Boxing, Golden Boy and Wasserman, among others.

DAZN TV includes much of the same MMA content, but also features a more general mix of sports programming, including Champions League and Europa League soccer. 

DAZN Ringside will show up on the programming grid of the Tubi app in the U.S., while DAZN TV will be available in Canada. 

Fox said last year that Tubi had surpassed 74 million active users. According to Nielsen, the platform accounted for 1.6% of all living-room-based television usage in March. 

AMC’s drama series Parish leads a limited lineup of original shows debuting during the week of Easter.

Parish debuts March 31 and stars veteran actor Giancarlo Esposito as a taxi driver whose dark past is revived after the murder of his son. Also starring in the six-part series are Arica Himmel, Paula Malcomson, and Skeet Ulrich.  

Premiering March 29 is Apple TV Plus' Steve! (Martin) A Documentary in 2 Pieces, a documentary film focused on the iconic comedy/actor. Martin Short, Tina Fey and Selena Gomez appear in the two-part profile.

Here are video trailers and premiere dates for several shows debuting during the week of March 25-31. For some videos, viewer discretion is advised.

March 27, Dead Hot (comedy), Tubi

March 28, American Rust: Broken Justice (drama), Prime Video

March 28, The Baxters (drama), Prime Video

March 28, We Were The Lucky Ones (drama), Hulu

March 29, Madu (documentary), Disney Plus

March 29, Spermworld (documentary movie), FX

March 29, Renegade Nell (adventure), Disney Plus 

March 31, A Gentleman in Moscow (drama), Showtime

A new survey conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of Fox Corp. and its ad-supported streaming service, Tubi, suggests consumers want to stream more than ever before, but that they’re also budget-minded and are looking for free ad-supported mechanisms … like Tubi. 

According to The Stream 2024: Streaming Insights for Marketers, 58% of young Americans would rather watch ads while streaming than pay full price for an ad-free service.

The survey also indicated that most Americans spend $120 each month on paid TV subscriptions, $8 more than they spend on gas.

With this high price tag, 53% of Gen Z and millennial respondents believe they’re overspending on streaming, the report says.

Tubi, with a business model that hinges on ad revenue to provide free on-demand viewing, stands to gain if viewers are truly so dissatisfied with current paid streaming options.

Even more, Tubi says that 62% of viewers prefer free-ad-supported streaming to paid streaming.

However, January’s Nielsen Gauge indicates that Tubi makes up 1.5% of all consumer viewership, below nearly all of the major paid streamers aside from Max and Paramount Plus.

Tubi, according to its press release, just saw 78 million monthly active users and a 59% growth year-over-year in total viewing time, pushing it past the 8.5 billion streaming hours earned in 2023.

Tubi says that 63% of its users are cord-cutters or cord-nevers and 30% are unreachable on other major ad-supported streamers.

According to its press release, Tubi has seen 60% growth in the 18-34 demographic, with year-over-year growth rates as high as 85% among LGBT audiences.

Here are some other findings from the survey:

Tubi, Fox’s ad supported streaming service, named veteran ad sales executive Jeff Lucas as chief revenue officer.

Lucas replaces Mark Rotblat, who had been CRO since 2018.

Rotblat will be focusing on AdRise, another unit in Fox's Tubi Media Group, a Tubi spokesperson said. AdRise is a large-scale video advertising network that incorporates all of Fox’s video inventory from Tubi, Fox Sports, Fox Entertainment, Fox News Media and Fox Television Stations.

The move is the latest in a series of changes at Tubi, where Anjali Sud was named CEO last year and at Fox, where Jeff Collins was named president of ad sales.

Lucas will report to Collins. 

Most recently, Lucas was chief revenue officer for Firework, a video commerce platform. Before that he was head of North American sales & global client solutions at Verizon Media. Earlier in his career, he was head of ad sales for Viacom and NBC Cable.

“The future of entertainment will be shaped by an increasing convergence of Hollywood, Silicon Valley and Madison Avenue,” Sud said. “As advertisers struggle to reach cord-cutters and cord-nevers on traditional TV, Tubi is uniquely positioned to reach this next generation of audiences. Jeff brings industry-leading experience and a stellar track record that bridges traditional media with digital, and we’re thrilled to be adding him to our leadership bench.” 

At Tubi, Collins will be responsible for leveraging Tubi’s scale and unique incremental audience to drive monetization.

“The streaming landscape is facing secular trends that are redefining entertainment as we know it, and Tubi’s 100% free, ad-supported entertainment experience makes audiences feel seen while giving advertisers the ability to maximize reach and ROI,” Lucas said. “I’m looking forward to diving in with the team to help accelerate growth during such a pivotal time for the industry and the business.” 

Fox Corp.’s ad-supported streaming service, Tubi, is revamping its brand identity, introducing a new-look logo and a new tagline: “The streaming choice for the next generation of audiences.”

“During a time of seismic change in entertainment, Tubi continues to grow and resonate with audiences as the most watched free TV and movie streaming service in the U.S.,” Tubi CEO Anjali Sud said in a statement. “This traction comes from our commitment to putting the viewer first, and we’ll continue to lean into this strength in the coming year with a series of new programming and product initiatives.”

The new look for Tubi features a more-vibrant purple and yellow logo, as well as a playful jingle that sounds when opening the Tubi app.

Developed in partnership with design agency Dixon Taxi, the new brand design will begin rolling out to all supported platforms starting Wednesday.

The updated homepage includes a nod to the “Tubi rabbit hole,” the ad campaing first introduced in a 2023 Super Bowl commercial that featured giant rabbits throwing viewers into big holes, in which they were immersed in Tubi reruns. (This was thought up before Paramount and Pluto TV came up with their kind of similarly minded "coach potato" theme for this year's Super Bowl.)

“Our viewership growth is strongest with young, multicultural audiences and they love Tubi for the rabbit holes, the nostalgia and the content they can’t get anywhere else,” Tubi chief marketing officer Nicole Parlapiano said. “In this new brand system, we wanted to give them a fun, bold and engaging platform, that remains frictionless and 100% free, to indulge in the content that reflects their passions.”

According to Nielsen, Tubi increased its share of viewing to 1.5% of the overall U.S. TV viewing market in January, and the FAST claims “exceptional traction amongst younger, multicultural audiences” in its press release.

According to Tubi, 63% of users are cord cutter or “cord nevers”, and 30% are unreachable on other major free advertised video on-demand services. Tubi also cited major year-over-year growth for multicultural, female and 18-34 year old audiences.

Syfy's drama series Wynonna Earp will return to the small screen in a new special on Tubi Tv set to debut later this year, according to published reports.

The Fox-owned, ad supported streaming service teased the special based on the western-themed, action/drama series -- which ran on Syfy from 2016-2021 -- in an X (formerly Twitter) social media post Thursday that featured the script's cover page. 

The Wynonna Earp: Vengeance special will be executive produced by series creator Emily Andras, with Melanie Scrofano reprising here role as the descendent of legendary lawman Wyatt Earp, tasked with killing supernatural beings.

Series stars Tim Rozon and Katherine Barrell will also return for the 90-minute special, according to reports. 

Tubi, Fox’s ad-supported streaming service, said it named Courtney Sanchez as chief strategy officer and executive VP of operations.

Most recently, Sanchez was chief operating officer of Vimeo.

In her new post, Sanchez will be responsible for building the company’s strategy for growth through data and market-driven insights and for making its operations efficient and effective.

Also Read: Tubi Tops 74 Million Monthly Active Users

“As more streamers embrace ad-supported entertainment, Tubi’s unique growth formula continues to shine and resonate with younger audiences,” said Tubi CEO Anjali Sud, who also previously worked at Vimeo. “Courtney is a strategic veteran who has sat at the intersection of media and tech for decades — I am thrilled to welcome her on board to help propel Tubi as we look to differentiate further in the U.S. and scale our formula globally.”

Before Vimeo, Sanchez spent more than a decade at HBO in business intelligence and audience insights roles.

“It’s a pivotal time in the entertainment business as the streaming landscape shifts increasingly towards ad supported models,“ Sanchez said. ”Tubi’s leading ad tech, unique and growing audience and vast content library makes for a truly differentiated offering for advertisers, content creators and viewers. I’m excited to help the talented Tubi team scale our collective impact in bringing all people access to all the world’s stories.”

Tubi, Fox’s ad supported streaming platform, is diving into women’s sports with the documentary Shattered Glass: A WNBPA Story.

Produced by Malka Media Group with the WNBA Players Association, the documentary looks at four current WNBA stars, Jonquel Jones, Nneka Ogwumike and Breanna Stewart, as well as WNBA legend Sheryl Swoopes.

The documentary is presented by Puma with additional support from Crown Royal Regal Apple.

“Shattered Glass: A WNBPA Story is a transcendent documentary that uniquely captures the power and spirit of female athletes,” said Anjali Sud, CEO at Tubi. “Tubi is proud to collaborate with the Women's National Basketball Players Association as part of our commitment to uplifting bold and inspiring voices for young and diverse audiences.” 

Directed by rising filmmaker Andrea Buccilla, a former college athlete and commercial director, the documentary features an all-women team in its development, production, and direction. 

The players also served as executive producers.

“Shattered Glass: A WNBPA Story is more than a documentary – it's a movement,” said executive producer Terri Carmichael Jackson. “We're bringing to light the incredible stories of these athletes, who are not just sports icons but powerful advocates for change, respect, and inspiration – something that all women can relate to and feel empowered by.” 

Tubi, Fox Corp.’s ad-supported streaming service, said it made a deal with the National Basketball Association to stream some G League games on a new NBA G League TV channel that will be available on Fridays and Saturdays.

NBA G League TV will have 75 games each season, including select playoff games, that will be seen exclusively on Tubi. 

The first game streams November 10 when the Ignite play the Ontario Clippers. 

G League games also appear on ESPN platforms and NBA TV.

“We are thrilled to team up with the NBA G League for over 75 exciting match-ups and unbelievable moments from the game’s breakout emerging players,” said Adam Lewinson, Chief Content Officer at Tubi. “Bringing together the G League’s next generation of stars and our young and highly engaged audience is another dynamic step in our sports content strategy.”

The G League is the NBA’s developmental league, featuring players looking to hook up with NBA teams. The league also tests potential rule changes in the G League.

“We are excited to further expand access and deepen engagement with our fans through this partnership with Tubi,” NBA G League chief operating officer Portia Archer said. “The G League is filled with tomorrow’s NBA stars and we can’t wait for Tubi’s audience to experience the elite competition and exceptional talent in our league.”

Live sports are among the strongest programming on TV and games are steadily moving from broadcast and cable to streaming. 

During Fox’s earnings call, CEO Lachlan Murdoch touted Tubi’s revenue growth, but said the streamer would be largely sticking to entertainment programming, leaving the big sports licensing deals to Fox Broadcasting and the FS1 and FS2 cable networks.

In a soft overall market, Fox said demand for its sports properties remains strong, but the company has no plans to put live sports on its Tubi streaming platform.

Speaking on Fox’s first-quarter earnings call with analysts Thursday, CEO Lachlan Murdoch said Fox’s focus on sports and news has insulated it somewhat from the weak ad market.

For football, Murdoch said, Fox was seeking high demand and above upfront pricing for the NFL and college football. There have been reports that high ratings have left a glut of inventory on the ad market.

“College football has never been more popular,” Murdoch said, with ad volume and prices rising. Advertisers “can see the value in this audience. Maybe it was underpriced in past years.”

Murdoch noted that increases in football this quarter will be offset by a disappointing World Series, which ended with the Texas Rangers beating the Arizona Diamondbacks in five games that generated record low ratings.

“Sometimes you get lucky and get a seven-game series with a matchup that excited the imagination of fans and sometimes you get less lucky,” he said.  “We would have liked to have seen more games and more national excitement.” 

While sports is strong, Murdoch said he didn’t see sports being a big part of its Tubi streaming platform.

“We don’t envisage having significant live sports on Tubi,” Murdoch said. Tubi will continue to focus on video-on-demand entertainment.

Revenue for Tubi was up 30% in the first quarter.

“Tubi will be the way our audience engages with entertainment in the future. It’s a core part of our business and a core part of our strategy,” he said.

Asked about Fox’s decision not to renew its deal for WWE SmackDown, Murdoch said Fox’s analysis showed the Friday-night series was not delivering the level of return on investment the network wanted, in terms of advertising revenue and impact on retransmission fees. (SmackDown will move to NBCUniversal’s USA cable network in 2024.)

Murdoch added that Fox was in the finals stages of renewing its deal with NASCAR, which has been exceeding expectations.

“We look forward to continuing that partnership,” he said.

Tubi, Fox’s free ad-supported streaming service, said it has topped 74 million monthly active users.

Viewers logged nearly 4 billion streaming hours on Tubi in 2023 through the end of June, the company said.

"Tubi is now watched as much as a top 5 cable network, as audiences continue to embrace our digital-first, 100% free streaming experience,” said Anjali Sud, the recently appointed CEO of Tubi. 

“The platform continues to scale with 47% growth in ad revenue and 65% growth in total viewing time Q4 over Q4, and we are executing an ambitious strategy to define the next generation of entertainment through our diverse content, passionate audience and innovative tech platform,” she said, referring to stats disclosed during Fox’s fiscal fourth quarter earnings call last month. 

Tubi said that according to MRI-Simmons, viewing grew more than 50% among young adults 18-34 years old, among African Americans, Hispanics and multicultural audiences. Simmons found that 33% of Tubi streamers are not reachable on other top AVOD services. 

Viewers can find more than 200,000 movies and TV episodes, plus 260 FAST channels on Tubi. Tubi started streaming originals in June 2021 and how produced and streamed nearly 200 titles, which have bene watch by about 54 million viewers.

According to Nielsen, Tubi accounted for 1.4% of total TV viewing time in July.

Fox’s streaming service Tubi said it hired Anjali Sud to be its CEO, effective September 1.

Sud had been CEO of Vimeo. She succeeds Tubi founder Farhad Massoudi as CEO and reports to Paul Cheesbrough, who is CEO of Fox’s recently formed Tubi Media Group.

"Anjali is a highly accomplished executive in the technology and media industry with a passion and track record for strategic disruption and authentic leadership,” Cheesbrough said. “As Tubi continues to scale and solidify its momentum as the most watched free TV and movie streaming service in the U.S., she is the perfect candidate to lead Tubi into a new era of creativity, growth and market leadership.”

At Vimeo, Sud grew the company to 300 million users. She previously held posts at Time Warner and Amazon.

Since being acquired by Fox in 2022 for $440 million, Tubi has grown to become one of the top ad-supported streaming services, with a 1.3% share of viewing in May, according to Nielsen. Tubi revenues were up 31% in Fox’s fiscal third quarter, the company reported in May.

“We are witnessing a seismic shift in where and how content will be consumed, and I believe that Tubi can become the destination for the next generation of audiences,” Sud said. “The future of streaming TV is free, and I am excited to join the Tubi team to help shape the next wave of entertainment, by giving all people access to all the world's stories. Tubi is doing things differently in a space that is being imminently disrupted, and that is my kind of opportunity.”

Fox Corp. said that Fox Sports executive Mike Mulvihill has been named president, insights and analytics, a new post at the company.

In his new role, Mulvihill will oversee the research, analytics and strategic planning teams at Fox Sports, Fox Entertainment and Tubi.

Mulvihill, who had been executive VP, head of strategy and analytics for Fox Sports,  will continue to report to Mark Silverman, president and COO of Fox Sports, while also reporting to the leadership of Fox Entertainment and Tubi.

“Mike has been an unbelievable asset to the Fox Sports team, providing unmatched insightful analysis, and helping us grow our business to new heights,” said Silverman. “We are thrilled to see Mike expand his portfolio and bring his unique talents to our Fox Entertainment Group and Tubi.”

Mulvihll joined Fox Sports in 1995 as a research analyst and was promoted to senior VP in 2011.

As Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month comes to a close, a new Horowitz Research study shows that streaming services are in position to take advantage of the growing appeal of content targeted to Asian TV viewers.  

Nearly six out of every 10 hours of viewing time among Asian Tv content viewers are spent watching streaming services, according to Horowitz’s Focus Asian Volume 2: Viewing Behaviors study. Overall, 69% of Asian viewers subscribe to at least one SVOD, with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney Plus among the most popular services Asian viewers are also subscribing to Asian-targeted SVOD services such as Zee5, Voot, Rakuten Viki and OnDemandKorea.

Also, seven in 10 Asian TV content viewers are watching free streaming services, and 45% of viewers are viewing free, ad-supported streaming TV services (FAST) such as Tubi, Pluto TV and Samsung TV Plus, according to the survey. 

The report, conducted in April among 500 Asian TV content viewers, also stated that Asian-language content is very important to the Asian TV content viewers, with six in 10 watching Asian-language content at least occasionally, In addition, two in three Asian-language dominant/bilingual consumers reported that Asian-language content is important to them. 

“Clearly, there’s been an explosion of interest in Asian content – driven not only by Asian audiences but audiences in general,” Horowitz Research Insights & Strategy Lead and executive VP Adriana Waterston said. “As media companies continue to lean into the Asian content opportunity, we anticipate that this will lead to even more varied and diverse stories that represent the entirety of Asian experiences, cultures and communities globally and in the U.S.” 

In what seems like an unlikely corporate pairing, Fox-owned Tubi has partnered with Vice Media Group to produce eight investigative documentaries exclusively for the ad-supported streaming service. 

The first doc, The Cult of Elon, which will delve into the "cult of personality" surrounding controversial Tesla and Twitter owner Elon Musk, will debut on Tubi April 26. 

That will be followed up by the May 6 Tubi premiere of Vigilante, which examines the emergence of online vigilantism through the investigation of a Los Angeles-based serial arsonist. 

Vice's brand is generally viewed as muckrakingly left of center, so it's a bit odd to see it surface within the bowls of a Fox profit center. 

Then again, with Vice once again trying to find a buyer, and its valuation dipping below $1 billion, the media company probably isn't being too particular in terms of where it's getting its distribution. 

“These original documentaries will raise the curtain and spark conversation on stories that tap into today’s cultural zeitgeist, including ticket scalping, chatbots and the rise of online vigilantism," said Adam Lewinson, chief content officer for Tubi, in a statement.

Fox’s streaming platform Tubi announced integrations with VideoAmp, LiveRamp and Comscore at its pre-upfront Tubi Connect event Thursday.

Tubi also said it was adding Pause Ads to its collection of customizable ad formats.

“Tubi is the largest and fastest-growing free ad-supported TV streaming service in the U.S., and we offer advertisers unique and incremental TV audiences to drive brand impact,” Tubi chief revenue officer Mark Rotblat said. “We’re expanding our partnerships with key industry players to make it easier than ever for buyers to transact on Tubi and deliver the seamless experience they need to effectively plan, activate and measure their campaigns.”

Also Read: Fox Pushes Tubi Brand With Two Super Bowl Commercial

In terms of new planning tools available to advertisers and media buyers, Tubi said it has integrated with VideoAmp’s Premium Video Planning Tool, which can be used for both upfront and scatter purchases. 

Tubi is also integrated with LiveRamp TV Activation, which helps advertisers take advantage of all of Tubi’s content by using first- and third-party data to forecast viewership and audiences.

Comscore’s Comscore Campaign Ratings are available for alternative audience measurement of campaigns on Tubi. ■

Perhaps looking to get its message out to Madison Avenue before things get too noisy with the upfronts, Tubi has set a half-day conference for advertisers for Thursday, March 23 at Spring Studios in Manhattan.

Yeah, that's next week. 

The Fox-owned ad-supported streaming company said that "Tubi Connect" will be "a deep dive into how Tubi is connecting diverse stories, brands, and data with the right audiences and delivering brand impact at scale."

Tubi execs scheduled to speak at the event include CEO Farhad Massoudi; CMO Nicole Parlapiano; CRO Mark Rotblat; Chief Commercial Officer Adam Lewinson; and Tyler Fitch, senior VP of advanced TV and partnerships. 

Brand and content partners will also be featured, including Bryian Keith Montgomery Jr., writer and director of the upcoming Tubi original Cinnamon.

Tubi reported a fourth quarter revenue surge of 25% to over $200 million in sales, with total viewing time up 44% last year and active users reaching 64 million. 

“Given the outstanding growth of Tubi, now is a great time to give our brand and agency partners a closer look at Tubi’s strategy for the coming year as well as our unique POV across trending topics in the video investment ecosystem,” said Rotblat, in a statement. “At Tubi Connect we will highlight how our growth is fueled by diverse storytellers reaching passionate fans, and how brands can engage with them creatively, enabled through data and technology.”

Fox Sports will take the field March 7 for its coverage of the World Baseball Classic international tournament.

Fox, FS1, FS2, Tubi and Fox Deportes will combine to carry live all 47 games of the three-week, 20-team international elimination baseball tournament that kicks off with the Cuba-Netherlands matchup on FS1. 

Fox will televise the first game for Team USA, which features such players as Mike Trout, Trea Turner and Adam Wainwright, as it meets England on March 11. Fox Sports announcers Joe Davis and John Smoltz will call the Team USA opener, according to the company. 

Also:  Eric Shanks, Fox Sports Find Success With a Time-Tested Playbook

All World Baseball Classic games will be played across four venues, including Chase Field in Phoenix and LoanDepot Park in Miami, as well as the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan, and Taichung Intercontinental Stadium in Taichung, Taiwan.

Team USA won the last World Baseball Classic in 2017; the 2021 tournament was canceled due to the pandemic. Japan won the first two WBC tournaments in 2006 and 2009, while the Dominican Republic won in 2013.

“What a fantastic way to build excitement around the 2023 baseball season, with the best players in the world facing off for pride of country,” Fox Sports president and chief operating officer Mark Silverman said in a statement. ■ 

If the multi-million-dollar commitment for Super Bowl ad time and planned press leaks about demurred-upon sales offers haven't been enough to convince you over the past few days, take Fox's latest "The Stream 2023 Audience Insights" report as further evidence that the entertainment company is high on Tubi. 

The report (downloadable here) basically serves as a (rather effective) position paper: connected TV streamers reached 240 million in the U.S. last year (up 7%); more folks than ever are thinking about cutting the cord (48%); and nearly one in three streaming consumers (31%) is looking to reduce subscription spending and is turning to free ad-supported entertainment. 

Perhaps most notable is Fox's sizing up of the total connected-TV ad market, which it said grew by 33% last year to $18.9 billion. That's still a fraction of the $68.4 billion drawn by linear TV last year. Linear kept growing in ad revenue (up 4%) despite losing more large chunks of viewership time to connected TV. Overall streaming usage increased by 21%, according to the study.

It seems like every other day lately, we're writing about another company entering the free ad-supported streaming business -- largely with the same content as everyone else. 

It's easy to understand why this is occurring, given the growth projections. 

Also notable: Fox parses the definition of free ad-supported streaming channels (FAST) and ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD), classifying the former as streaming channels that have the scheduled aesthetic of linear cable channels. 

That FAST business, the report said, generated just $2 billion in the U.S. last year, but is expected to double in size by next year. So the whole virtual live linear channels phenomenon only generates a tiny fraction of overall ad revenue in the TV business. 

Across what are now 22 FAST providers, there are 1,400 channels serving 190 million users, Fox said. 

Fox gave its ad-supported streaming service Tubi a big push on TV’s biggest stage Sunday with two brand spots during Super Bowl LVII.

The spots showed giant bunnies tossing people down a rabbit hole, a metaphor intended to show viewers the depth of content available on Tubi.

Fox Sports also ran a promo for Tubi that made it appear as if viewers were moving from the Fox game announcers to the Tubi home screen to watch a movie.

“With our inaugural Super Bowl campaign, we wanted to introduce Tubi to the world brand first,” Tubi chief marketing officer Nicole Parlapiano said. “While much of the streaming world still revolves around an obsession with the latest movie or series, we are on a mission to give all people access to all the world’s stories. That means having a deep and diverse library that allows people to dive into their own personal content journey where they can discover anything from Hollywood blockbusters and classics to subgenres and subcultures that just might lead them down the perfect rabbit hole for them.”

Fox does not own a big subscription streaming service. Instead, it bought Tubi in 2020 for $440 million and has been cashing in on the popularity of ad-supported streaming.

Tubi has grown since and Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch has made a habit of bragging about how well Tubi is doing on quarterly earnings calls with analysts.

On Fox’s fiscal second-quarter earnings call last week, Murdoch said Tubi ad revenues grew 25%. 

“We have seen increases in almost every major KPI [key performance indicator] of Tubi, including CPMs [cost per thousand viewers], TVT [total viewing time] and engagement,” Murdoch said. "In fact, Tubi had its highest quarterly viewership in this fiscal second quarter, with total viewing time up 41% year-on-year, while December alone was the highest TVT and highest user month ever. These trends have continued early into the third quarter as Tubi adds viewers and content to the platform.”

Last week Bloomberg reported that Fox turned down a $2 billion offer to sell Tubi.

The Tubi campaign was created by ad agency Mischief @ No Fixed Address.

“Nicole and the Tubi team came to us with a unique brief for the streaming sector: Reveal Tubi to the world, personality-first. Not title-first,” Mischief co-founder and chief creative officer Greg Hahn said. “These spots reveal a personality we’ve had fun creating over the past few months: Quirky, playful and a bit unexpected. Tubi is poised to be the troublemaker of the streaming world.”

Tubi teed up the "Rabbit Holes" campaign over the past week with 3D out-of-home ads at five locations New York and Los Angeles. Teasers have also been running on paid media and social media. ■

Purchased by Lachlan Murdoch and Fox three years ago for $440 million, free ad-supported streaming service Tubi has quickly emerged as one of the entertainment company's most valuable assets ... and Fox wants you to know this. 

Citing “people familiar with the overtures,” Bloomberg reported that Fox recently turned down a $2 billion offer to take Tubi off its hands. 

These sources said that Murdoch wants to keep the FAST, which grew revenue by 25% in the quarter ending December 31 while bringing in more than $200 million. 

Viewing time on the platform was up 41% year over year during the fiscal second quarter, and monthly users reached 61 million — up 10 million in 12 months. 

“Revenue and engagement KPIs at Tubi have far exceeded our expectations and are consistently growing in the healthy double-digit range since we acquired it almost three years ago,” Murdoch said during last week’s earnings call. “The results at Tubi are proof that our strategy is working and we will continue investing in and growing this platform.” ■ 

After Planters runs its Super Bowl LVII commercial on Fox showing Mr. Peanut as the subject of a celebrity roast, a longer version of the roast will appear on Fox’s streaming platform Tubi.

The deal marks the first time Tubi has included advertiser-created content as entertainment. 

The long version of the Mr. Peanut roast will be part of a Tubi Total Takeover on Monday (February 13). Anyone accessing the platform will be able to see the show on Tubi’s home screen.

The show will also be discoverable through the platform recommendation engine throughout February.

“To roast Mr. Peanut, we knew it required the scale and excitement of a proper roast, complete with a live band, hungry crowd and laugh-out-loud talent,”  Rafik Lawendy, head of marketing at Planters, said. “While you entertain with delicious  peanuts at your at-home viewing party, we’ll provide the nutty entertainment.”  

Financial terms of the Tubi arrangement were not disclosed. Most of the 30-second spots on Fox sold for between $6 million and $7 million, though some sold for more than $7 million.

Also: Warner Bros. Discovery Jumps Into FAST Lane With Roku, Tubi

In the commercial — and the longer video appearing on Tubi — roastmaster general Jeff Ross and other comedians take turns cracking Mr. Peanut. The other comics including Natasha Leggero, Frank Castillo, Atsuko Okatsuka, Yamaneika Saunders, David Lucas and Sarah Tiana.

As is traditional at comedy roasts, Mr. Peanut will “will take his turn at the podium, busting out of his shell with a few zingers of his own,” Planters said.

The commercial was produced by Vayner Media.

The comedy can also be found at #MadetobeRoastedContest on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter and Instragram.

Fans can post their own roast of Mr. Peanut at plantersmadetoberoasted.com. ■

Warner Bros. Discovery, turning from its subscription-streaming-only model in a big way, has made deals to launch free, ad-supported streaming television channels on the Roku and Tubi platforms.

The programming heading to free, ad-supported television (FAST) channels includes Westworld, which was canceled and pulled from WBD’s HBO Max in order to save money and create tax write-offs at the debt-laden media company.

Tubi plans to launch 14 WBD-branded FAST channels. Westworld, Raised by Wolves, Legendary, FBoy Island, The Nevers, Finding Magic Mike, Head of the Class and The Time Traveler’s Wife will be featured on three new channels that will be created and curated by Tubi.

Another 11 channels based on genres will also launch on Fox-owned Tubi. Those channels will feature shows including Cake Boss, My Cat from Hell, Breaking Amish, Caribbean Life, How It’s Made, Paranormal Lockdown, Murder Chose Me, Mysteries at the Museum, A Wedding Story and My Five Wives.

Tubi will also be getting access to a number of films and other programming that will be available on demand.

“Tubi’s innovative platform and these new channels are one more way we are bringing Warner Bros. Discovery’s vast array of content to our fans,” David Decker, president of Warner Bros. Discovery Content Sales, added. “Tubi is an incredible client, and we’re excited to expand our relationship with these new channels.

Here are the WB channels coming to Tubi:

• WB TV Watchlist: a collection of premium television series including Westworld, Raised by Wolves, The Nevers and Time Traveler’s Wife.
• WB TV Keeping It Real: A collection of unscripted television series including Legendary, FBoy Island and Finding Magic Mike.
• WB TV All Together: A collection of family-friendly series, including Head of the Class.

Additional FAST channels coming to Tubi, with content also available on-demand, include: 

• WB TV Sweet Escapes: Features cake-making and baking competitions.
• WB TV Paws & Claws: Shows featuring pets, including Dogs 101 and My Cat from Hell.
• WB TV Slice of Life: Discover the unique lives of people from all corners of the world with shows including Extreme Couponing, Breaking Amish and My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.
• WB TV Welcome Home: Real estate and interior design shows like Caribbean Life, Buying Hawaii and Bahamas Life.
• WB TV At the Movies: Classic films from the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s.
• WB TV How To: Find the answers to questions with curiosity-inspiring series including How It’s Made, How to Build Everything and How the Earth Works.
• WB TV Supernatural: Real-life stories of ghosts, goblins and other out-of-this-world entities.
• WB TV Crime Series: Crime scenes, unsolved cases, intense investigations and more with Murder Chose Me, A Crime to Remember and Murder Comes to Town.
• WB TV Mysteries: Untold stories of unexplained, unsolved and unknown mysteries from around the world including shows like Mysteries at the Museum, Mysteries at the Monument and Off Limits. 
• WB TV Love & Marriage: Say “I do” to wedding shows, including Say Yes to the Dress Atlanta, Four Weddings and A Wedding Story.
• WB TV Family Rules: Unconventional couples ando unbelievable stories about real-life families, including Long Lost Family, The Little Couple and My Five Wives.
• WB TV Keeping It Real: Reality shows from The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Bachelor in Paradise, Finding Magic Mike and Fboy Island.
• WB TV All Together: Stories that feel like home and characters who feel like family.  

“Warner Bros. Discovery has a catalogue that TV lovers can't get enough of and Tubi is proudly making many of these recent hits from Warner Bros. Discovery available to new audiences this month,” Tubi chief content officer Adam Lewinson said. “From critically acclaimed and groundbreaking to lighthearted and addicting, our new WB branded FAST channels and on-demand offering will speak to each of Tubi’s distinct audience communities.”

The Roku fast channels are scheduled to arrive in Spring 2003. The deal also calls for about 2,000 hours of on-demand content from Warner Bros Discovery to be available on demand on the Roku platform and appear on The Roku Channel.

“As FAST continues to explode in popularity amongst cord-cutters, we’re seeing content players increasingly shift their focus towards capturing this audience, by bringing some of their best stuff to FAST,” Roku VP, programming Rob Holmes said.

“The rapid expansion of premium content on FAST is a win for both the viewer and content owner, as well as advertisers looking to reach these audiences through well-known programming. We’re delighted to be one of Warner Bros. Discovery’s inaugural FAST partners, and we look forward to introducing its incredible TV series, films, and entertainment brands to a whole new audience on The Roku Channel,” Holmes said. 

Shows available on Roku will include Westworld, The Bachelor, Cake Boss, Say Yes to the Dress and F-Boy Island.

“We love working with world-class, cutting-edge partners like The Roku Channel,” Decker said. “Their innovative platforms provide us with new ways to bring our valuable content to fans across the country.” ■

While rival FAST The Roku Channel continues to build its reality cooking channel around Emeril Legasse, Fox's Tubi is going to kitchen show battle with hyper-critical British producer Gordon Ramsay, a staple on FOX Broadcast for over a decade. 

Ramsay will soon have his own FAST channel on Tubi, which will provide a home for all those repeats of FOX shows Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, Masterchef and Masterchef Junior.  

And now, Ramsay is also producing Tubi's very first original unscripted kitchen series, Kitchen Commando.

Debuting on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 12, Kitchen Commando will feature former U.S. Army Master Sergeant and White House Chef Andre Rush visiting 10 Washington, D.C. restaurants in need of Chef Rush's "discipline and resourcefulness." 

Each of the 10 first-season episodes will feature Rush deploying "all his talents to whip these eateries back into shape.

The show is a collaboration between Fox Alternative Entertainment and Studio Ramsay Global, LLC. Ramsay will be listed among the exec producers. 

“Spending time with Chef Rush, I know firsthand his dedication to the food world, and his story is an inspiration to any chef. And trust me, his arms are no joke!" Ramsay said in a statement. 

Just like Netflix, Tubi says it's seeing an uptick in demand for Korean-language programming-- the free ad-supported streaming service says viewership is up for this local-language content by 25% year over year. 

With this mind, Tubi announced the acquisition of more than 75 titles from leading Korean studio CJ ENM, including films, dramas and K-Pop-themed TV series. 

Titles dropping on Tubi in the U.S. and Canada this month include crime-fighter-themed TV dramedy Squad 38, one-season-and-done romantic drama series Reply 1994 and also short-lived comedy romance series Ho Goo's Love. Films debuting on Tubi include gritty crime drama The Chronicles of Evil, fantasy drama A Werewolf Boy and Hindsight, the latter of which stars Song Kang-ho (best known for the Oscar-winning Parasite and the original Snowpiercer).

Additional movies from CJ ENM to be made available beginning this month include Hwang Jin Yi, The Accidental Detective, Murder, Take One, Parallel Life, Seondal: The Man Who Sells the River, Howling, Deranged, Perfect Number, Blood and Ties, Killer Toon, Tough as Iron, Helpless, Time Renegades, Heart Blackened, The Advocate: A Missing Body, Finding Mr. Destiny, Glove, Penny Pinchers, The Servant, Over My Dead Body, The Map Against the World, Remember You, Good Morning President, Castaway on the Moon, Arahan, Going by the Book, Salut D’Amour, The Sound of a Flower, White, Spellbound, Sunny, and Ode to My Father.

While rival FASTs seem fixed on reality lifestyle originals and themed channels built on old returns, Tubi is scouring the global for film titles, B-level and otherwise. 

More CJ ENM titles will drop on Tubi in 2023. 

“Our partnership with CJ ENM comes at an optimal time for Tubi as we scale and enhance our focus on foreign language content,” said Adam Lewinson, chief content officer for Tubi. “Korean-language titles have been an increasingly popular destination for Tubi viewers and we’re excited to kick off this collaboration with a leader in the Korean content space.” 

Added Sebastian Kim, director of content sales and acquisitions at CJ ENM: “We plan to continue to seek opportunities to increase the accessibility of our content to global audiences to meet the growing demand of K-content.”

Fox reported that advertising revenue at its Tubi streaming platform topped ad sales for Fox Entertainment. The gains come at a time when many digital video services are reporting slowing ad sales.

“The story at Tubi is breathtaking with [fiscal] first-quarter revenue growth reaccelerating to almost 30% over last year,” Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch said on the company’s earnings call Tuesday. “This marks the first time that Tubi revenue has surpassed the advertising revenue generated by Fox Entertainment in a meaningful way.”

So far in the current quarter, Tubi revenues are up nearly 40%, Murdoch said.

Fox acquired Tubi for $440 million in 2020. Revenue has grown quickly, with Murodch projecting that it will be a billion-dollar business in the future.

Tubi has made money in some quarters, but Fox is currently investing in Tubi, so it is running at a $50 million quarterly deficit. The streaming service lost about $200 million last year and is likely to do about the same this year, Fox chief financial officer Steve Tomsic said.

Murdoch noted that the losses were much smaller for Fox than other media companies are encountering as they attempt to build subscription streaming services with expensive original programming.

Tubi’s growth was based on a 50% increase in total viewing time, which reached a record 1.3 billion hours in the first quarter, Murdoch said. Ad prices based on costs per thousand viewers have remained relatively constant.

Viewing was consistent across all genres, he said, noting that in addition to video-on-demand, Tubi has been adding linear free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels. 

Ad-supported streaming has been ascendant lately. Netflix and Disney Plus are jumping in with ad-supported tiers and Paramount Global’s AVOD service Pluto TV broke the 1% of total TV viewing mark in September according to Nielsen.

“Tubi’s impressive progress and growing audience engagement, and monetization is indicating that our investment strategy and operational focus is working nicely.,” he said.

Murdoch also downplayed the impact of an ad slowdown on Fox. 

“Yes, the broader national advertising market is looking more fluid compared to the time of our last earnings call,“ he said. ”However, the macro impact is not uniform across our verticals,” Murdoch added, noting that the bulk of Fox’s ad sales comes from live sports and news programming.

“While we have observed some softness in the linear entertainment scatter marketplace, remember that Fox does not over-index to network entertainment,” he said. ”So any impact there is nominal to us and it has been more than offset by the digital entertainment strength delivered by Tubi.” ■

Fox’s ad-supported streaming platform Tubi said it has integrated enhanced programmatic bidding capabilities from FreeWheel’s Beeswax into Tubi's proprietary tech stack.

The integration gives Tubi buyers who use Beeswax access to incremental inventory and audiences, plus real-time addressability via Tubi’s previous adoption of LiveRamp’s Authenticated Traffic.

As a result, Tubi has already seen a 3.7% increase in month-over-month spending by buyers on Beeswax.

“Our partnership with FreeWheel has allowed us to optimize our inventory and extend our connection to Beeswax customers,” Tubi chief revenue officer Mark Rotblat said. “We’re thrilled to integrate Beeswax's enhanced bidding technology into our supply side platform and have already experienced substantial growth as a result of this collaboration.”

Demand-side platforms like Beeswax are seeing rapid growth in ad spending on free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels like the ones Tubi offers.

“With this new direct connection to Tubi, it’s easier than ever for our buyers to access Tubi’s premium, brand-safe content and to scale advertiser campaigns against desired audiences in an incredibly efficient manner,” Matt Clark, VP of partnerships at FreeWheel, Comcast’s ad tech company, said. ■

Fox Corp. said it made a deal with Innovid to measure cross-platform TV viewership across the Fox portfolio.

The InnovidXP measurement system is part of Fox’s efforts to find new ways to quantify ad delivery, impact and performance. 

The deal comes at a time when media companies are looking for alternatives to historic industry leader Nielsen to count and analyze viewers in a more complex TV environment.

“As more viewers engage with content across multiple screens, it remains vital that we continue to work with our ad partners and provide them with the necessary data and insights that further display the value of converged TV and the engaged audiences and concentrated impact Fox delivers,” Fox senior VP, data strategy and sales innovation Dan Callahan said. “Our partnership with Innovid is another step forward in expanding and delivering cross-platform measurement solutions that further align with our advertisers’ objectives.”

The agreement is also an expansion of the work Innovid started last year with Tubi, Fox’s ad-supported streaming service.

Also: Tubi Expands Nielsen Ratings Coverage to Additional Devices

“For more than a year, Tubi has been working in lockstep with Innovid to quantify the unique reach that streaming delivers to advertisers beyond linear — providing Top TV advertisers with actionable insights,”  Tyler Fitch, senior VP, advanced TV and partnerships at Tubi, said. “Tubi and Fox have a shared vision to create the optimal environment for advertisers to efficiently reach the right audiences across multiple platforms and screens. InnovidXP brings this vision to life with consistent, accurate and scalable cross-platform TV measurement.” 

InnovidXP generates cross-platform viewership from a combination of household-level data from smart TVs, automatic content recognition and connected TV ad impressions. 

Fox will look to InnovidXP to determine a deduplicated view of audiences across platforms, highlighting how advertisers can reach wider audiences with campaigns that use both Fox and Tubi. Fox said it has found that on average 80% of Tubi households are unreachable by linear TV and that brands that add Tubi to Fox linear campaign reach audiences that are 75% incremental.

“Fox and Tubi are redefining the way advertisers approach TV investments by prioritizing analytics that prove the value of converged TV,” InnovidXP president Jo Kinsella said. “We are thrilled to support this collaborative effort to unite linear and streaming with cross-platform audience measurement and look forward to delivering advertisers the insights and metrics that matter today.” ■

Tubi said Wednesday it launched a channel dedicated to the FIFA World Cup, working with Fox Sports, which will be televising the global soccer tournament from Qatar starting in November of this year.

At launch the free ad-supported streaming TV channel will have content looking ahead to Qatar 2022 as well as classic games and highlights from past tournaments.

Special Fox Sports Digital content celebrating FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 will also appear on the channel in the lead-up to the tournament. During this year’s tournament, the channel will roll out event coverage featuring highlight compilation videos.

The channel will appear exclusively on Tubi.

“We’re proud to be the ultimate streaming destination in the U.S. to celebrate the highly anticipated FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 tournament,” said Farhad Massoudi, Tubi's founder and CEO. “We’re thrilled to give our viewers different entry points to enjoy one of the largest global sports events, whether they want to drop into the experience via our FAST Channel or actively engage through VOD, Tubi is making sure soccer fans never miss a moment of this historic winter World Cup.”

Tubi is part of Fox Entertainment.

Tubi said now has a lineup of FAST channels covering 150 sports including the NFL and Major League Baseball. ■

Free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) services are all the rage as content providers and distributors look for any way to squeeze profits from streaming video, and though there is a danger that too much of a good thing could once again saturate the market, Barclays Group believes the segment could end up taking share away from more traditional streamers.

The number of FAST services has grown significantly over the past two to three years with services from traditional media giants (Peacock, Tubi, Pluto, Xumo, Vudu and Crackle), hardware vendors — (Freevee, Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus and LG Channels) and independents (Plex, Kanopy, Hoopla) and more are on the way. Warner Bros. Discovery has said that it plans to launch a FAST service at some point in the future as has Android TV.

Also: More Scripps Channels Go FAST in Deal with Vizio

Low barriers to entry and lower costs for content — most of the services offer classic TV series and older movies — make FASTs attractive to content creators and distributors alike. But in a research note, Barclays Group media analyst Kannan Venkateshwar asked, despite those plusses, is FAST sustainable?

One drawback is the lack of differentiation of content between the services. In his report, Venkateshwar noted that content overlap for FAST services is more than 80%, compared to 3.9% for Disney Plus and 9% for HBO Max.

Also: FAST Usage Was Up 9 points in the First Five Months of 2022

What FAST services lack in content differentiation they apparently more than make up for in availability. In his report, Venkateshwar noted that FAST services may have higher penetration than any single premium subscription service because of the breadth of their distribution, through smart or connected TVs and other means. Smart/connected TV penetration is 87% in the U.S. and 40% globally, and every connected TV has access to the full suite of FAST services as well as streaming offerings like YouTube and TikTok.

Availability is Key

“Access to premium services on the other hand is based on penetration of SVOD services and consumer propensity to pay for multiple services,” Venkateshwar wrote. Although the average U.S. household subscribes to 4.7 streaming services, he added, the one with the highest penetration (Netflix) is at 56% while overall streaming penetration is 85%. 

“This implies that the mix within this SVOD basket consumed by the average household is not constant and there is a lot of switching based on content release schedules,” he continued, adding that it also accounts for the high churn levels of most SVOD services. 

While engagement for individual FAST services is below that of their SVOD counterparts, combined they account for more minutes than subscription offerings. Barclays, citing Nielsen research for one week this year (July 25), noted that together Tubi (4.4 billion minutes), Roku Channel (3.5 billion minutes), Pluto (5.1 billion minutes) and Peacock (3.5 billion minutes), edged out Amazon Prime Video (15.1 billion minutes) and was nearly twice that of Disney Plus (9.6 billion minutes) and almost three times that of HBO Max (6 billion minutes). That gap could narrow further as awareness for FAST offerings increases. That’s also where aggregation services like Android TV, Roku, and Comcast’s Flex offering could become a factor, Venkateshwar wrote. 

Also: David Zaslav and the [Streaming] Deathly Hallows  

“With television viewership increasingly determined by aggregation services and the still growing clutter of thousands of titles across streaming services, we believe content choices are likely to be increasingly determined by the recommendation engines that can look across streaming services,” Venkateshwar wrote. “However, with every major recommendation engine having its own affiliated free ad supported streaming service (Comcast Flex-Peacock, Xumo, Vudu, Android TV — new Channels service, YouTube, Amazon Fire — Freevee, Roku — Roku Channel etc.), content on these services is likely to feature as prominently on TV screens as premium content for SVOD services.”

It’s All About Engagement

Ad revenue for FAST services is still low. According to Barclays, the top three services ad-revenue-wise are Pluto TV ($1.2 billion), Peacock ($1.16 billion) and Tubi ($653 million). And though upcoming AVOD products from Netflix and Disney Plus could further cut into that ad revenue pie, Venkateshwar wrote that it may all come down to overall engagement. 

Also: Is Engagement More Valuable Than Subscribers? 

“One of the most important drivers of engagement however may be the recommendation engine sitting outside these services,” the analyst wrote. “This in turn could turn streaming advertising workflow to a process not that dissimilar to search where the recommendation engine ultimately determines how GRPs are allocated across services, potentially in return for a share of ad revenues.” 

Walled Gardens and Open Spaces

Venkateshwar continued that this could lead to a split in the overall streaming ad ecosystem, similar to what has happened in the digital advertising arena. He estimated that today about 34% of time spent online is with so-called “walled gardens” like Facebook, Twitter, Snap and Pinterest, while the remainder is spent on the open Web, which also accounts for about 40% of ad revenue.

Over time, FAST could act more like the open Web, Venkateshwar wrote, while SVOD is more like a walled garden. 

“This process may result in advertising on these free streaming services being lower-priced fungible programmatic inventory, with CPMs being more comparable to services like YouTube and TikTok,” Venkateshwar wrote. 

According to the analyst, walled gardens are more likely to have CPMs that resemble television because they would have more control over ad delivery and measurement. But he added that across both segments the availability of inventory will most likely be determined by recommendation engines, which could result in lower ad margins. 

Still, Venkateshwar believes FAST services will become a larger category, albeit more fragmented than SVOD or AVOD spaces, making their success more dependent on aggregators. And though the same holds true for traditional SVOD and AVOD offerings like Netflix and Disney Plus, they have considerably more brand awareness as well as their own content franchises that should help drive engagement.  

“With Android TV launching its own free streaming service, Comcast already having Xumo/Vudu/Peacock, Amazon having Freevee and Roku having Roku Channel, we wouldn’t be surprised if independent free ad-supported streaming services like Pluto and Tubi, which have among the highest engagement today, end up declining in importance and consumption skews towards services owned by aggregators,” Venkateshwar wrote. “Therefore, we may see a significant skew in revenues across ad-supported streaming services over time, focused on a small set of services despite broader fragmentation in free service availability.” ■

Tubi, Fox’s streaming service, said it is launching a new unscripted series TMZ No BS, which will start August 24 with a look at Britney Spears.

Fox acquired TMZ last year and has been ramping up its original programming using Fox franchises, including TMZ, The Masked Singer and Gordon Ramsay. Tubi also recently launched a TMZ free ad-supported streaming TV channel.

TMZ No BS is being hosted by Harvey Levin, TMZ’s founder, Charles Latibeaudiere and guest contributors. Levin, Latibeaudier will also executive produce.

The series’ first season will have 12 episodes. After Britney Spears, episodes will include JLo, Wildest Celebrity Arrests and Connor McGregor.

“TMZ No BS is a must watch on Tubi for any avid TMZ follower and all pop culture enthusiasts,” said Adam Lewinson, chief content officer at Tubi. “We’re excited to have fans discover this new docuseries where Harvey Levin and his team sit down for a stripped down roundtable conversation, and examine some of the biggest celebrity moments through a new lens.”

The Britney Spears episode will feature stories from reporters who have covered the singer and exclusive footage from the TMZ vault. Levin and the rest of the TMZ gang will discuss Spears’ rise to fame and the events that led to her being tied up in a decade-long conservatorship. ■

Fox’s streaming service Tubi said it greenlit Breaking Bear, an adult animated series produced by Blink 182's Tom DeLonge’s production company and Cartel Entertainment.

The series, created by Julien Nitzberg parodies mobster dramas, combining Yogi Bear with the Sopranos, Tubi said.

"When The Cartel pitched a series with cartoon animals as mobsters, I knew it was an offer I couldn’t refuse," said Adam Lewinson, chief content officer of Tubi. "This is the perfect project to expand our adult animation offering after the stellar success of The Freak  Brothers, cementing Tubi as a destination for adult humor."

Breaking Bear is executive produced by DeLonge, Stan Spry, Jeff Holland, Bradford Bricken and Eric Woods. Julien Nitzberg also serves as an executive producer and showrunner. ■

Tubi, Fox’s ad supported streaming service, said it is expanding its footprint in Latin America, launching in Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala and Panama this month.

Tubi has been doing business in Mexico since 2020.

Also: Tubi Gets Exclusive AVOD Access to 30 Mostly Terrible Lionsgate Films

Programming will be localized and offered in Spanish. Regionally produced TV series will soon be available, including Mexico’s Bienvenida Realidad, Atrapada and El Sexo Debil; as well as local versions of popular series such as The Nanny, Bewitched, and Married with Children.

“We’re delighted to launch our platform in these five Latin American countries, bringing viewers a mix of locally-produced content, Spanish-language favorites and Hollywood titles,” said Adam Lewinson, chief content officer, Tubi. “We’re eager to expand deeper into Latin America after the stellar success of Tubi in Mexico, which has seen tremendous growth in such a short amount of time.”

Also: Tubi Revenue To Exceed Purchase Price, Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch Says

Over the last year in Mexico, Tubi said it has seen total viewing time (TVT) grow 60% year-over-year and total viewers grow 40% year-over-year. 

Working with TV Azteca, one of the two largest producers of Spanish-language content in the world, Tubi serves as the free streaming home in Mexico to TV Azteca’s popular titles.  ■

Fox reported higher fiscal fourth-quarter earnings, as Fox News Channel ratings rose, political advertising increased at the company’s TV stations and Tubi continued to grow.

Net income rose to $306 million, or 55 cents a share, from $253 million, or 43 cents a share, a year ago.

Revenue rose 5% to $3.03 billion. Affiliate-fee revenue rose to $1.73 billion from $1.67billion. Advertising revenue increased to $1.06 billion from $982 million.

At Fox’s cable network programming segment, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) dipped to $628 million from $674 million a year ago. Revenue increases were offset by higher expenses, including digital investments and increased costs at Fox News Media and spending to launch the USFL, the company said.

Cable revenues rose 2% to $1.46 billion. Advertising revenues rose 14% to $358 million. 

EBITDA at Fox’s Television segment rose 53% to $226 million. Revenue rose 5% to $1.53 billion. Ad revenue grew 4% to $683 million on gains in political advertising on Fox TV stations, growth at Tubi and the addition of the USFL on Fox Sports. Fox Entertainment ratings and revenue was lower. Affiliate-fee revenue went up 7% to $683 million.

“We completed another successful year at Fox, with Fiscal 2022 results demonstrating the strength and durability of our core brands and their ability to deliver consistent audiences across the entirety of Fox,” CEO Lachlan Murdoch said.

“These results validate the strategy we embarked on three years ago — to focus on live news and sports while investing in high-growth digital initiatives to create a platform for ongoing growth,” Murdoch said. “We begin Fiscal 2023 with strong momentum, supported by an enviable schedule of live sporting events and the midterm election cycle and bolstered by a best-in-class balance sheet. These attributes will serve us well in navigating any macroeconomic uncertainty while continuing to create value for our shareholders.” ■

Fox said it reached a new multi-year distribution deal  with Verizon that will add Fox Weather and Tubi to Verizon’s Fios TV platform.

The agreement extends the retransmission agreements for Fox’s TV stations in markets served by Fios including New York, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.

Fox News Media and Fox Sports channels will continue to be carried. 

In addition, Fox Weather, launched last year as a streaming service, will be added to the Fios TV lineup. Tubi, acquired by Fox in 2020, also will be including on Fios set-top boxes and on other Fios platforms.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

“Fox  is pleased to extend and expand our long-standing relationship with Verizon as we add Fox Weather and Tubi to our industry-leading portfolio of news, sports and entertainment available to Verizon’s subscribers,” said Michael Biard, president, operations and distribution, Fox Corporation. ■

Fox’s Tubi ad supported streaming service said it launched a Gordon Ramsay FAST Channel that features episodes of the chief’s popular Fox Series.

Fox has previously created channels on Tubi devoted to some of its other properties, including TMZ and The Masked Singer. Also available are News on Tubi, Sports on Tubi and Tubi Originals.

Upcoming is Tubi en Espanol.

The Gordon Ramsay channel will start off with episodes of Fox series Hell’s Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, Masterchef and Masterchef Junior.

In September, the channel will add Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, Ramsay’s Best Restaurant, Gordon Ramsay’s Ultimate Cookery Course, Gordon’s Great Escape, The F Word and Ramsay in 10. Those series have appeared on a variety of streaming services.

“Gordon Ramsay is a true icon and the most powerful person in the food space. Viewers clearly want more of Gordon Ramsay, so being able to have a dedicated FAST channel gives viewers more of what they want: all Gordon, all the time,” said Adam Lewinson, chief content officer at Tubi. “Launching the Gordon Ramsay FAST Channel expands his presence in the AVOD space and complements the great work he does on Fox." ■

Freedom's just another word for nothing to lose?

Tubi has entered into what it calls an "exclusive" multiyear slate deal with Lionsgate, becoming the "premier" free-to-consumer, AVOD home to 30 of the so-called mini-major studio's titles.

The agreement, which is said to include more than 200 Lionsgate movies overall, starts with immediate Tubi access to Shattered, a low-budget thriller built around the crowd-pleasing themes of kidnap, torture and extortion, and starring John Malkovich, Frank Grillo and Cameron Monaghan. (The movie, and its 19% aggregated critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, had a brief international theatrical run back in January.)

On June 27, Tubi will roll out Pursuit, an even more universally panned action-thriller (9% score), starring John Cusack and Emile Hirsch. 

Still feeling impulsed to taste just how expired that month-old container of 2% milk is?

Starting this fall, Tubi users can stream Wolf Hound, a World War II-themed action film, starring Trevor Donavan, James Maslow and Michael Wayne Foster. Scoring an aggregated 13% among critics, this movie flies into "every cliché it can," wrote the San Jose Mercury News' Randy Myers. 

These films will join additional "soon-to-be announced star-driven titles that include  Morgan Freeman, Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson, Anna Paquin and Martin Lawrence," among other well-knowns seeking paychecks, Tubi said.

Notably, Lionsgate was an early investor in Tubi the startup, before the company's $440 million purchase by Fox three years ago. Lionsgate has since been a go-to Tubi partner for films and TV shows. 

 “Bringing together an exclusive free offering of thirty upcoming releases, as well as beloved movies and series from Lionsgate’s world-class content library, will deliver even more value to our viewers," said Adam Lewinson, chief content officer at Tubi.

“This agreement reflects our ability to have multiple bespoke content licensing deals with an expanding array of buyers in every part of the content ecosystem,” added Lionsgate President of Domestic Television Distribution Ryan Lowerre. “We’re pleased to expand our longstanding relationship with Tubi, a leader among AVOD platforms, to bring an exciting slate of star-driven multiplatform films to their viewers.”

After Netflix’s disappointing first quarter — and another one due on the horizon — a general sense of panic that streaming video may not be what unseats traditional pay TV from its throne has enveloped the entire industry over the past few months. Wouldn’t it be an actual hoot if what saves Netflix and its broadband-delivered brethren ends up being something as mundane and dumb-pipe-like as fiber deployment?

Netflix said back in April that it lost about 200,000 global subscribers, its first quarterly loss ever, adding that it could lose another 2.5 million in Q2. At the same time cable and telcos are furiously building out fiber networks, fixed wireless access and 5G offerings across the country to close the broadband gap, mainly in rural markets. With that fiber deployment, fueled in part by billions of dollars of federal money, could come millions of new broadband customers itching to try out streaming for the first, or maybe the second or third time.

Netflix obviously has other problems — it has shed nearly $200 billion in market cap since December 31 as its stock price has fallen 71% and investor sentiment has literally done a 180-degree turn on the company. Investors who were unconcerned about the ever-escalating content spend (about $17 billion in 2021) as long as the subscriber growth trajectory was maintained, are now urging Netflix to close its wallet.  

And while Netflix stock has seen its ups and downs in the past, this time it was serious enough to force the company to embrace two things it has vehemently resisted in the past: offering a lower-priced ad-supported version and going after paying subscribers that share their passwords. According to reports, an ad-supported version of Netflix could come as soon as the fourth quarter of this year. 

 Fiber Blowout

Fiber deployment and construction are the new buzzwords in the cable and telco business, with AT&T claiming they will pass an additional 30 million customer locations with the technology by 2025. Cable operators are regularly extending their existing footprints with fiber — Comcast and Charter Communications are adding roughly 1 million homes per year through fiber edge-out programs — and smaller operators are constantly announcing new fiber builds. So far in May alone, nine small operators and telcos have announced plans to build fiber networks, with TDS Telecom pledging to pass an additional 160,000 homes with fiber this year and Wide Open West pledging $400 million to extend fiber to an additional 400,000 homes by 2027. 

Forget that there are still some questions as to whether there are enough skilled techs to actually build networks. Forget that these networks won’t be fully built for another five years at least.  Chances are if there wasn’t a worker shortage, the number of projects would be even greater — because nothing creates a growth surge more than money, and the federal government has earmarked $65 billion for network buildouts in areas they deem have insufficient broadband speeds. And even though a lot of those projects will be done in areas that have incumbent providers, more choice and higher speeds can only be good news for streaming service providers, right? 

Netflix obviously needs more subscribers. And cable operators, telcos and soon-to-be-Twitter owners are all spending huge amounts of cash to extend broadband services to rural areas. And since some of the customers in those markets don’t have Netflix or other SVOD services -- because you need broadband to stream video — that would appear to represent a pretty big untapped market. Maybe not hundreds of millions of people, but at least a few million. And every little million helps. 

Sounds pretty simple?

Some Gray Areas

Not really. Like everything else in the media business, there are some gray areas. 

Perhaps the grayest is just how many homes don’t have sufficient broadband. The federal government says there are 30 million people that live in areas that don’t have sufficient high-speed data, but doesn’t say how many homes that works out to be. And though DSL service may be a lot slower than cable broadband, with top residential  speed of 100 Megabits per second vs. 1 Gigabit per second for cable, it’s still fast enough to stream video. So technically, truly new broadband customers — those who have never had broadband and therefore, SVOD — are probably pretty few. 

That’s what  Leichtman Group president Bruce Leichtman thinks. Sure, he said in a recent interview, new fiber builds may attract some new subscribers to Netflix, but it will be a marginal amount. More likely, he added, is that a combination of faster networks, lower prices for ad-supported streaming and the advent of free ad-supported TV (FAST) could present an opportunity to convince customers in those areas to subscribe to other SVOD services.

“I think it's an opportunity, but it’s more of a gradual opportunity,” Leichtman said of the fiber build’s impact on Netflix and other SVOD providers. “Remember, they have to build these markets, and the building takes a while. And we’re talking about the 86th percentile. These are not the early adopters that we’re talking about.”

But Growth is Growth, Isn’t It?

Although there has been a lot of talk about the slowdown in broadband growth, it’s still growing. Leichtman believes that one of the biggest catalysts for Netflix and other streaming services would be a return to new housing growth, which has been stagnant throughout the pandemic. New homes means new subscribers for broadband as well as SVOD services.

“While the breadth [of the SVOD market] is mature, the depth will continue to grow,” Leichtman said. “That means more services per household.” 

LightShed Partners expects total broadband subscriber additions to be fairly constant over the next three years: 3.5 million in 2022, 3.3 million in 2023, 3.2 million in 2024 and 3.2 million in 2025. 

At the same time, traditional pay TV losses are accelerating. Wells Fargo Securities media analyst Steven Cahall estimated that traditional pay TV lost 2.2 million subscribers in Q1, 400,000 more than in the same period last year. 

Our own Next TV estimated that cord cutting accelerated 31% in Q1, due mainly to losses at virtual MVPDs and satellite TV service providers.    

MyBundle.TV CEO and founder Jason Cohen said what some observers are missing is that broadband is still growing.

“That’s the piece of the puzzle that the streaming marketplace isn’t very focused on,” Cohen said, adding that his company has nearly tripled its number of broadband partners from 31 in June 2021 to 90 currently, including many small market ISPs that are bringing broadband to people for the first time.

“Some of these people still don’t have Netflix,” Cohen said. “Is there another 100 million households for Netflix to gain in the US? No. But we’re talking about, on the margin, there are millions left. If you're talking about the smaller streaming services, there are still tens of millions [of subscribers] to gain. There's a lot of investment happening to bring more broadband to the table.”

Streaming is Not Dead 

Cohen bristles at those who claim streaming is dead, pointing to the roughly 68 million households who spend about $120 per month on traditional linear pay TV subscriptions. (That’s $98 billion annually, for those without a calculator) Those ranks are definitely going to deplete as those homes cut the cord, but that doesn’t mean they are going to start reading books and learning how to play the piano for entertainment. They’re going to stream video, either through a service they already have or via one to which they will soon subscribe.

“This idea that streaming is saturated we think is 100% incorrect. Those dollars are going to be shifting from those cable bills. Whatever it is, more broadband means there is going to be more streaming,” Cohen said, adding that consumers unwilling to pay $15 per month for a streaming service may be attracted to paying $9.99 for an ad-supported one.

Netflix won’t be alone in its ad-supported efforts. Others like HBO Max — which introduced its ad-carrying version in June 2021 -- Paramount Plus, and NBCUniversal’s Peacock all have introduced AVOD tiers to varying degrees of success. Disney Plus said it would launch a lower-priced ad-supported version later this year.

Disney Plus added 7.9 million new customers worldwide in fiscal Q2, exceeding analysts’ consensus estimates of 5.9 million additions. Including its Hulu, ESPN Plus, and Disney Plus Hotstar brands, total customer additions were about 9.2 million in the period. But the company warned that because the first half of the year came in so much better than expectations, the second half may not be as strong.

“...[T]he first half came in better than expected, so that delta that we had initially anticipated may not be as large,” Disney chief financial officer Christine McCarthy said on a conference call with analysts Wednesday to discuss quarterly results. “But we still do expect an increase in the second half to exceed the first half.”  

The push towards AVOD is a logical next step for streaming, and could ease the pressure to spend heavily on new content just from the nature of the business model. With AVOD, the longer a consumer watches, the more money the service makes, while the absence of advertising means as consumers burn through shows, more content has to be created to keep their attention. 

FAST and Furious 

At the same time, free, ad-supported TV (FAST) services like Paramount’s Pluto TV, Fox’s Tubi TV, the Roku Channel and others are becoming the fastest growing segment in the streaming universe. Pluto TV has about 68 million monthly active users, Tubi about 51 million and indications are that the segment will continue to soar as new players enter the fray. 

Cohen added that the FAST segment is where he believes the ad dollars once earmarked for linear networks will go, adding that MyBundle.TV is building a FAST component into its platform to take advantage of that growth.

“We know people want free TV, they want to pay for no adds, they're willing to pay less to get ads, and then some of them are willing to lean back and say, ‘You know what, I’m willing to take a little bit lower quality content so I can flip through channels,’ ” Cohen said. “Whether it's Pluto or Tubi, you name it, there's a real market for that free TV.”

MyBundle.TV obviously is in the position to take advantage of the shift in how programming is delivered, and Cohen believes that his service, which enables customers to navigate the growing number of streaming services to find the content they want to watch, will become even more valuable as choices increase and traditional linear bundles erode. 

That is even more true today as the number of services increases and the sheer amount of available programming balloons. Tubi alone has a content library with more than 40,000 titles. And as more and more content providers are focusing on originals and other exclusive shows, finding programming across the various streaming services can almost become a full-time job.  

It’s About Aggregation, Not Consolidation

“It’s not what I’m paying for my apps, it’s what am I getting out of it,” Cohen said. “Right now if I subscribe to an app and I'm not going to it to find the content and I’m not finding new shows or movies, then that might be a problem. There’s a lot of content out there, and a lot of good content, on multiple different streaming services. … By helping consumers discover new shows and movies across their services there's another way to increase that value.”

“To me, it’s not streamer vs streamer, it’s still streaming vs the $160 billion [in revenue] between the subscriptions and the advertising that is still spent by advertisers on traditional linear TV,” Cohen continued. “That money is shifting over through this new delivery mechanism that is streaming.”

And Cohen believes that the industry can support more streamers, just as long as there are simple ways for consumers to access the content they want.   

“I think that ultimately our view of the market, there doesn't need to be consolidation, but there needs to be aggregation,” Cohen said. “There needs to be a way for consumers to more simply navigate this process. We think this because the way that consumers build their own bundle that will still include Netflix, that will still include these other big services, as well as the niche services for people’s  interests. 

The pay TV industry is not blind to the need for aggregation either. Comcast and Charter Communications unveiled a joint venture earlier this month that would serve as a streaming platform for its broadband-only customers, one that could easily become a streaming app aggregator.

Cohen acknowledged that larger pay TV companies will likely go on their own when it comes to app aggregation. But he added there is plenty of room for the smaller guys, adding that there is a growing number of ISPs with 200,000 or 300,000 subscribers that would welcome help. 

“We do not think Comcast is going to be using MyBundle.TV,” Cohen said. “But for everybody else, we view ourselves as that aggregator. We consider ourselves the streaming aggregator for the broadband industry.” ■

Tubi, Fox’s free ad-supported streaming service, announced that it plans to double down on content, add more channels and provide advertisers with fresh data and insights.

At its NewFront presentation Monday, Tubi said it will debut more than 100 original titles in the next 12 months. 

The new content will target genres its viewers already enjoy, including Black cinema, thrillers, horror, sci-fi, romance and adult animation. In addition to attracting viewers, the original programming will enable Tubi to integrate advertisers into content.

Some original productions will come from Fox units including Bento Box Entertainment, MarVista Entertainment and Fox Alternative Entertainment.

One Tubi original series, The Freak Brothers will be coming back for a second season, the streamer said. Based on the underground comic, The Freak Brothers premiered on Tubi in November and became the most-watched series on the platform. WTG Enterprises will be producing eight new episodes, which are scheduled to debut in December.

A series of documentaries is also on the way, including one on the last days of basketball star Kobe Bryant from TMZ.

Tubi is adding linear channels to its lineup based on Fox Entertainment programming including The Masked Singer, TMZ and Gordon Ramsay. 

Also: Tubi Revenue To Exceed Purchase Price, Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch Says

Tubi advertisers received Campaign Insights, an analysis matching content clusters with audience information. In addition to its own data, the viewer information comes from measurement companies including TVSquared, Foursquare and Kantar. 

Also: Tubi Expands Nielsen Ratings Coverage to Additional Devices

“Tubi’s approach of personalization allows for content for every community, and our record growth shows it’s working. We’re doubling down on this approach while delivering our brand partners transparency and an opportunity to reach incremental, diverse and highly engaged consumers,” said Mark Rotblat, chief revenue officer at Tubi. 

The announcements follow a year of growth at Tubi, with its 51 million active users last quarter and 3.6 billion hours watched in 2021, up 40%. 

Tubi said most of its growth comes from college educated and affluent demos. With an average viewer more than 16 years younger than non-streamers, Tubi’s audience is nationally representative across geographic, economic and educational segments, and includes a large multicultural audience, comprising 40% of its user base. ■

Tubi, Fox’s free, ad-supported streaming service said it is working with Nielsen to measure viewing on more devices.

Nielsen’s Digital Ad Ratings products will include Tubi viewing on computers, mobile devices, and connected TV devices. 

The added inputs will give advertisers a more comprehensive view of ad performance on Tubi, inclusive of co-viewing. Nielsen said the move is a step towards its Nielsen One service, Nielsen’s new cross-platform measurement system.

“As a movie and television streaming service with 80% of our viewers watching on TV screens, we’re excited about the proposed integration of Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings measurement across our device partners,” said Mark Rotblat, chief revenue officer at Tubi. “This upcoming device coverage replaces slim proxies with comprehensive and stable currency-grade measurement, allowing our advertisers to transact on audiences in a way that is apples-to-apples with traditional TV.”

With the proposed Nielsen DAR integration on Tubi, brands will get deeper contextual insights and be able to align brand objectives with the thousands of movies and television titles audiences consume. Advertisers will also be able to better understand the demographic and interest-based attributes of an audience.   

"We are excited to expand our relationship with Tubi through this integration, which enables enhanced and comprehensive measurement through Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings,” said Ameneh Atai, GM, digital audience measurement at Nielsen. “In this increasingly fragmented media landscape, the need for independent measurement is more critical than ever, as is providing more transparency to advertisers. Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings delivers audience measurement metrics across computers, smartphones, tablets and connected TV, providing campaign insights across digital media platforms and a deeper understanding of the unique reach of Tubi's target audiences.” ■

The week leading into Easter will feature the return of the Kardashian family to the small screen, a series profile of three presidential wives and a former president's narration of a documentary series showcasing national parks.  

Hulu on April 14 will debut The Kardashians, a new documentary series starring family members Kris, Kourtney, Khloe, Kendall and Kylie as they balance running their multi-billion dollar business with their personal lives, according to the streaming service. The series debuts nearly a year after E!'s Keeping Up With The Kardashians ended its run after 20 seasons.

Showtime on Easter Sunday (April 17) will premiere its new drama series The First Lady, which takes a behind-the-scenes look at the lives of Michelle Obama, Betty Ford and Eleanor Roosevelt. Actresses Viola Davis, Michelle Pfeiffer and Gillian Anderson star in the 10-episode series.

Former President Barack Obama will narrate a new Netflix documentary that focuses on the world's top national parks. The five-part series, Our Great National Parks, debuts April 13.

Below are video trailers and premiere dates for multiple shows debuting the week of April 11 to April 17 on cable networks and streaming services (for some videos, viewer discretion is advised):

April 11 – Chad (returning series) – TBS

April 12 – Hard Cell (comedy) – Netflix

April 14 – The Garcias (comedy) – HBO Max

April 14 – Killing It (comedy) – Peacock

April 14 – Not So Pretty (documentary) – HBO Max

April 15 – Anatomy of a Scandal (drama) – Netflix

April 15 – It’s The Small Things, Charlie Brown (animation) – Apple TV Plus

April 15 – Outer Range (western drama) – Prime Video

April 15 – Roar (dramedy) – Apple TV Plus

April 15 – Swimming with Sharks (drama) – The Roku Channel

April 15 – Titanic 666 (horror movie) – Tubi

April 17 – Fear The Walking Dead (returning series) – AMC

Seemingly besotted during every Fox Corp. quarterly earnings report with explosive revenue-growth figures and various other forms of CEO Lachlan Murdoch's bullish cheerleading, it's plenty clear that Tubi is a core asset for Fox moving forward.  

But it was refreshing to a get a more sober vantage of the free, ad-supported service, poised to generate as much as $700 million in ad revenue this year, from Fox's measured and monotoned COO, John Nallen.

Speaking Tuesday at Deutsche Bank's 30th annual Media, Internet & Telecom Conference, Nallen gave as clear of an indicator as you're likely going to find as to what Tubi is and isn't for Fox. 

For starters, Nallen dismissed the notion that the streaming service will soon emerge as a distribution hub for Fox's live sports. 

Nallen said Fox's core business remains providing broadcasters, and the MVPD distributors who pay retrans and carriage fees for Fox broadcast and cable channels, with a "guarantee" that Fox live NFL, MLB and NASCAR content isn't "leaking into a free distribution environment somewhere else."

Fox has put local news on Tubi, as well as sports shows from FS1, Nallen conceded. "But I don't see Tubi being a platform for us for live news and sports," he added. 

Nallen also made clear that Tubi isn't a linear streaming service, but a pure-play ad-supported video-on-demand platform (AVOD). 

Its focus will remain "deep library" content," Nallen explained.

"We’re not buying first-run product, which is going to places like Hulu or their own D2C products," he said. 

Original shows like the animated series The Freak Brothers and true-crime show Meet, Marry, Murder will have an increasing role in the Tubi programming mix. 

“We put 40 new originals on Tubi in the last year, and we’ll probably double that number next year," Nallen said. 

But don't look for big-budget premium original shows like you find on the major SVOD services. 

The lion's share of our programming will be deep library programming, augmented by originals, but not at the scale we're seeing at SVOD. We're not promoting A Handmaid's Tale or Yellowstone," Nallen said 

Nallen added that Tubi has expanded its library by 60%, to around 41,000 titles, since Fox purchased the streaming startup for $441 million two years ago. And Tubi is still able to license 95% of its shows on a revenue-share basis, he said. 

And don't expect a major expansion for Tubi into Europe anytime soon.

For now, Nallen said, Tubi's concentration will remain in the U.S., although it's also distributed in Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Canada. 

"The growth opportunity for us in the U.S. is still significant," he said.

Tubi will retain its limited ad load of 4-6 minutes per hour of programming, an aspect that "makes the service unique, given that some of our competitors deliver double or triple the amount of advertising," Nallen said.

With the overall AVOD category expected to expand its collective revenue by 4x over the next four year, Nallon also noted, "that kind fo growth will outpace any other growth we'd have in any other asset. 

"Tubi is a core business for Fox," he said. 

Netflix stock, which enjoyed a brief respite from its January 20 decline after two big investors snapped up a large amount of shares, is down again this week, a combination of fear, looming price increases and analyst reports.

Netflix stock took a double-digit nosedive after it released Q4 earnings after hours on Jan. 20. The next day, shares in the SVOD pioneer dropped 25% to $397.50 each and pundits were claiming that the tide was shifting away from the company that basically invented the subscription streaming video business. 

A few days later, on January 27, Netflix shares rose 10% after it was revealed that hedge fund guru William Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management said his fund purchased $1 billion in Netflix stock on January 21, boosting confidence in the company once again. Later, on January 31, Netflix founder and co-CEO Reed Hastings said in an Securities and Exchange Commission filing that he bought about $20 million in Netflix stock, which drove the shares up another 11.1% to $427.14 each. The thought was that Netflix stock had weathered the storm, that investors saw the intrinsic value in the company and its business and the stock would return to normal. Netflix shares closed at $457.13 on February 1, up 7% each. 

But it didn’t last long. Netflix shares began to slide and by February 2  fell 6% to $429.48 each. By February 4, the stock was down to $410.17, amid growing fears that Netflix had run its course, that despite spending $19 billion on content, releasing some of the most talked-about programming last year -- Squid Games, anyone? --  no one wanted to watch it anymore.

Also: What $19 Billion Gets You: Netflix Previews Entire 2022 Film Slate 

Those fears were somewhat founded in reality -- subscriber growth was down despite the release of popular programming -- but what got lost in the panic was that every streaming service was experiencing a growth slowdown. Disney Plus, HBO Max and Peacock all added fewer customers in Q4 than in the past. But Netflix was singled out because it spends the most on content and had been considered to be the unstoppable force of streaming TV. 

Shares were down again Monday to $402.10 after Needham & Co. media analyst Laura Martin issued a report claiming that only half of Netflix subscribers were satisfied with the service despite having its strongest content year ever, and 41% say they are more likely to jettison the service this year. Martin surveyed 504 Netflix subscribers in the U.S. (the service has more than 75 million domestic customers) and concluded if the SVOD pioneer wants to stop the bleeding, it has to add an advertising tier, buy an old media library to improve its content ROICs and/or sell out. 

“Netflix can NOT win the ‘streaming wars’ given its current strategy, we believe,” Martin wrote.

Shares have slowly inched back up in the past two days -- they closed at $403.53 on February, 8 and were priced at $404.09 on Wednesday afternoon, but they’re still far short of the $508.22 per share benchmark of about two weeks ago. 

This could truly be another example of the roller coaster ride that comes with being a Netflix shareholder. The stock has historically had big ups and big downs, usually around subscriber news, and maybe this is no different. But something just feels a little more off this time.

For one, there is a lot more competition on the streaming side than there was just a few years ago. Secondly, everybody is experiencing some kind of subscriber slowdown. Thirdly, all indications are that people are watching more video than they ever have, but if they aren’t watching streamers and are increasingly cutting the pay TV cord, what are they watching, video games? 

Or maybe the other explanation is that they are moving toward free ad-supported services like Pluto TV, Tubi and the like. Tubi already predicted that AVOD subscribers will surpass SVOD subscribers later this year. Maybe pricing really is becoming more and more important. 

But whatever it is, providers should take notice, because investors are. Disney Plus parent The Walt Disney Co.’s  stock was down about 5% between January 20 and February 9 and HBO Max parent AT&T fell 12% in the same timeframe, partly because of the fears around streaming.

While Disney seemed to reverse the slowdown in fiscal Q1 -- adding about 11.8 million Disney Plus subscribers, well ahead of consensus and driving its stock up 5.5% early February 10 -- some analysts pointed to possible weakness ahead.  

Fiscal Q1 was helped by new content releases, including the three-part Beatles documentary Get Back, and new programming could help accelerate subscriber growth beyond Q1 levels. But Barclays media analyst Kannan Venkateshwar worried that it may not be enough to get the service back on track to its previous guidance levels. Disney reiterated its guidance of 230 million to 250 million Disney Plus subscribers by 2024. 

“Next quarter may be a trough both seasonally as well as in terms of footprint expansion and content releases,” Venkateshwar wrote. “Q3 will see launches in 40 new territories in addition to tailwind from the IPL [Indian Premier League cricket] in India, which should add to growth, but Q4 will likely bear the bulk of the growth load due to release calendar. Given this cadence, the company may not be able to fully get back to its guidance trendline this year despite strong fiscal Q1.”  

Attracting the most attention from Martin’s survey is that 41% of respondents said they were “more likely to churn” from Netflix in 2022 because of the price increases. Take that with however big a grain of salt you want -- there’s a huge difference between “I probably will cancel”  and “I just cancelled.” But it does cast some shadow on what in the past has been the gold standard for streaming. Martin’s survey also suggests that 70% of respondents say they won’t pay for additional streaming services in 2022, which doesn’t bode well for the remainder of the streamer-verse. 

In her report, Martin wrote the “clear learnings” from the survey were: (1) That consumers believe they’ve watched “everything” Netflix had to offer during the pandemic of 2020 and 2021, and there was “nothing” on rival services like Discovery  Plus and Peacock. “Better to pay for new services than old,” she wrote; and  (2) Netflix still doesn’t offer a lower priced ad-supported tier like most of its competitors, meaning that “consumers that disconnect Netflix can replace it with 2 or 3 different streaming services for an identical monthly fee.”

Martin has been a sharp critic of Netflix in the past, and has called for a lower cost, ad-supported tier ever since Disney Plus came on the scene in 2019 at a $6.99 monthly price point.

Netflix management has been adamant in its resistance to including ads in programming in the past. And maybe all it will take is another popular movie or show or series or whatever to bring people back to the fold. But the fold is a lot different than it was in the past, and most of Netflix’s competition has either raised prices, included an ad-supported tier or both as a result. (FYI, I am leaving Amazon Prime Video, which said it will raise its annual charges by about 32% this year, out of the mix  because the vast majority of subscribers pay for the free shipping, not the video.)  

HBO Max launched in 2020 at $14.99 per month and last year introduced an ad-supported version at $9.99 per month. NBCUniversal launched Peacock nationwide in July 2020; Paramount Plus launched in 2021 with limited ads for $5 per month; and Discovery Plus launched in 2021 at $4.99 per month with ads.

Netflix has raised prices about 6 times since it launched its streaming video version in 2011 -- in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2022. Each time there was a fear of a massive subscriber exodus that never came. But this time may be different. There are a lot more choices for consumers on the streaming video front. 

Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings has said that he believes Netflix will weather this storm as it always has -- by providing more compelling content. Netflix spends more than any other service on streaming content -- $19 billion this year -- and last week previewed its entire movie slate for 2022. But more shows may not be the answer. Netflix had its most watched show ever -- Squid Games -- in September and still managed to disappoint regarding subscriber growth. And this year it said it expects Q1 subscriber additions to be about 2.5 million, its lowest growth in years. And Q1 is usually one of the company’s biggest growth quarters. 

By their very nature surveys are worded in a way to find out what people are going to do, not what they’ve done. And when those questions are put to people while the wounds of a price increase are still fresh, or shortly after they've binge-watched a show and don’t think they’ll ever be anything else to watch, the answers are usually pretty harsh. Wait a week and cooler heads usually prevail. 

That could very well be the case here. People are ticked off about another price increase, there are a lot of other lower cost choices around and none of them require long-term contracts, so people can drop them and sign up with abandon. But it does raise questions about streaming, which is turning out to be a lot like its predecessors in the video entertainment business, just trying to figure out the most convenient, cost-efficient way to deliver content to people who want it. Only time will tell who will come up with the formula that satisfies everyone's needs best. ■