Fox acquired ad-supported streaming service Tubi in March, but the programmer is already bringing it to market in the upfront conversations it’s having with clients.

“Tubi was the perfect complement for our set of assets,” said Marianne Gambelli, who became president of ad sales after The Walt Disney Co. bought 21st Century Fox last year, leaving a “new Fox” consisting of the Fox broadcast network, Fox News and Fox Sports.

Clients could potentially still buy their mass media on Fox’s broadcast and cable assets, and do more precision marketing to more tightly targeted consumers via Tubi.

“We were mostly focused on linear, so it rounded out our portfolio, giving us the younger audience, giving us the tech and the addressable inventory that we didn’t really have in the assets that remained at new Fox,” Gambelli said. “So it was actually a strategic purchase that made 100% sense helping us expand our portfolio in the marketplace.”

Fox has been bringing Tubi to media buyers as part of its upfront conversations.

RELATED: AVOD Acquisitions Could Spur Advanced Advertising

“Every client that we've kind of talked to is very excited about it,” Gambelli said. “This space is exploding. It’s younger, and there’s less commercialization. I think we’ll learn about that and maybe we migrate some of that innovation to Fox. Addressable is obviously becoming more important as data becomes more available and more actionable.”

Since Fox acquired it, Tubi has been adding content, including The Masked Singer, now the most popular show on the platform. It may also be adding local content from Fox stations in some markets.

Tubi ad sales are led by Tubi’s chief revenue officer, Mark Rotblat. He reports to Gambelli just like the executives in charge of selling the company’s news, sports and entertainment verticals. Because of its content, it will be most closely aligned with the entertainment vertical, Gambelli said.

The idea is to give Tubi its own focus, but at the same time, it fits nicely into different parts of Fox, Gambelli said.

Fox intends to take advantage of Tubi’s technology and the relationship it has with its viewers.

“They know their audience. As they learn your behaviors, they serve up content that they know you’re interested in,” she said. “You’re going to see what Fox does best in terms of content end up on Tubi but again keeping Tubi’s customer-focused experience.”

In this business environment, more targeted media might be an easier sell to advertisers. “It’s easier to justify because it’s targeted and you know you’re reaching that customer” and can demonstrate return on investment, Gambelli said. 

A decade ago, over-the-top distribution was a start-up’s game, dominated by the Slingboxes and Aereos of the world, not to mention the wave of YouTube multichannel networks like AwesomenessTV.

Heck, it wasn’t that long ago that Roku, which went public as recently as 2017 and will be a billion-dollar revenue company this year, was considered a start-up. In fact, Netflix was once a start-up, too, although it went public in 2002, long before it began streaming video.

These days, of course, OTT video is dominated by Silicon Valley giants, which have—somewhat ironically—put the major media conglomerates and telecoms in the role of insurgents, with Disney, AT&T/WarnerMedia and Comcast/NBCUniversal about to launch new streaming services to try to disrupt the strongholds of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and YouTube. Even Apple is playing the role of disruptor with Apple TV+.

Indeed, streaming is now a big company's game, with the next wave of disruption driven by some of the biggest corporations in the world. But there are a few scrappy streaming start-ups still out there, waiting to get bought.

Of course, they very infrequently say outright they want to get purchased. But it’s so obviously the plan! With that in mind, here are five notable independent OTT companies, which seem to be seeking a lot of attention these days. Note that we’re focusing on streaming start-ups here, and not ad-tech companies.

TUBI TV

Viacom had M&A talks with San Francisco-based Tubi TV in January, just before it announced its $340 million purchase of another AVOD platform, Pluto TV.

Speaking with MCN just after that Pluto TV deal was announced, Farhad Massoudi, co-founder and CEO of Tubi TV, said, “I can’t comment on M&A, but we are very confident in our path of staying independent.”

Certainly, the start-up—which was founded in 2011 as an ad tech company called AdRise, and has been privately funded to the tune of $26 million, according to its Crunchbase profile—has done everything it can to keep up its public profile.

Shortly after that conversation, Tubi TV closed on a $25 million loan with Silicon Valley Bank that it said would be used on a “nine-figure” content acquisition budget in 2019.

Indeed, Tubi TV has stayed steadily in the news, announcing myriad content deals, integrating its app natively into major pay TV platforms including Cox’s licensed version of X1, and expanding into Australia.

XUMO

It was reported back in February that Sinclair was “kicking the tires” on this Irvine, California-based AVOD company, which supplies an app that runs natively on smart TVs manufactured by Panasonic, LG, Sharp and Hisense.

Xumo is actually a joint venture between Panasonic and Viant, a Meredith-owned company that now owns MySpace. Speaking to MCN late last year, CEO Colin Petrie-Norris said his marching orders are to “grow the business rapidly.” The focus recently has been adding niche sports programming channels to its live-streamed, pay TV-like programming grid.

And like Tubi TV, Xumo’s name has been active in the headlines over the last six months, hiring new executives, expanding its channel lineup, and natively embedding its app into Comcast’s X1 and Android TV set-tops.

PHILO

The San Francisco-based virtual MVPD operator launched in 2010 and has been privately funded with $83.2 million through seven rounds, according to the company’s Crunchbase profile. Investors include Discovery Networks, Scripps Ventures, Viacom, A+E Networks, AMC Networks and HBO.

In April, Philo became the latest vMVPD to adjust its business model and raise rates, consolidating its service tiers into one $20-a-month offering with 58 channels, no broadcast networks or sports channels.

Led by CEO Andrew McCollum, who was part of Facebook when it was considered a startup, Philo kept it close to the vest when MCN pinged it about possible M&A opportunities. A company rep sent us the announcement from last year that Philo went live on Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV. She said that was the last time the company talked finances publicly. It was the equivalent of saying, “no comment.”

As far as we can tell, Philo hasn’t released a subscriber figure. But the company does seem to give off a decided “for sale” vibe at industry events.

Speaking at MCN’s OTT Summit conference in Santa Monica, California earlier this month, Mike Keyserling, COO and head of content acquisition for Philo, managed to boast about huge growth without giving away subscriber figures.

“We grew by 30% in the last eight weeks, and we’re really at the most accelerated growth in our company’s history,” Keyserling boasted.

FUBOTV

The New York-based virtual MVPD startup has raised more than $151 million in private funding from investors including Scripps, Sky and AMC.

Slogging it out against huge rivals backed by publicly traded telecom and tech giants, including Sling TV, DirecTV Now, Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV, in the low-margin vMVPD business, not having to endure quarterly earnings reports has been an advantage for FuboTV early on, CEO David Gandler told MCN in an interview conducted late last year, as the company was expanding operations to Spain.

Like the aforementioned streaming startups, FuboTV has kept its name steadily in the news this year. And it doesn’t want us to call it a pivot away from the vMVPD business, but FuboTV’s latest news all centers around Fubo Sports Network, a soccer and niche-sports themed 24-hour news channel that FuboTV itself has compared to Cheddar, the 24-hour digital channel that was recently purchased by Altice USA for $200 million. The channel is available on FuboTV, but also via the Roku Channel and Samsung smart TVs.

Speaking to Business Insider recently, Gandler admitted it'll be tough for FuboTV to stay independent. "It's tough in a sector that's skewed by M&A to take that off the table,” he said.

CURIOSITYSTREAM

Founded in 2015 by John Hendricks, the former Discovery Channel architect who once pioneered the basic cable universe, nature-documentary-themed SVOD service CuriosityStream has been privately funded with $254.7 million to date.

Announcing a $140 million funding round in February, CEO Clint Stinchcomb said the service reached 1 million paying subscribers at the end of 2018, and now has library content with more than 2,000 titles. By the end of this year, CuriosityStream expected its viewers will be able to choose from more than 3,000 titles including more exclusive originals available in 4K.

Stinchcomb said in May that CuriosityStream expects to have “several million" subscribers by the end of 2019, which would be a substantial increase over the 1 million it finished 2018 with. 

Tegna said it will broaden its OTT local/regional-focused ad network through a “strategic” investment in Tubi TV, the company behind a free, ad-supported streaming service that features more than 7,500 movies and TV series.

Tegna is not disclosing the amount of the investment, but said the relationship will enable it to help marketers access more local advertising opportunities in long-form OTT content. Of note, Premion, Tegna’s ad network for OTT content, will expand its existing relationship with Tubi TV, the companies said.

RELATED: Tegna Seeks OTT Ad-Vantage

Under the deal, Tubi TV will distribute Tegna’s local content across its platform, offering viewers localized news and other digital content from Tegna stations.

Launched in 2014, Tubi TV is currently supports on a range of devices and platforms, including iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, web browsers, Roku players and Roku TVs, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One and Xbox 360 consoles, the PlayStation 3 and PS4, Chromecast streaming adapters, and TiVo boxes, as well as smart TVs from Samsung and  Sony.

Tubi has raised at least $35 million so far, and counts Lionsgate, MGM and Stanford University among its backers.

RELATED: Tubi TV Raises $20M More

“Tubi TV strongly aligns with TEGNA’s focus on OTT content and innovative advertising solutions,”Dave Lougee, president and CEO of Tegna, said in a statement. “Through this transaction, we continue to fuel Premion’s growth trajectory and will enhance their ability to deliver unique and high-performing ads in a way no one else can.”

Tegna noted that it recently made an equity investment in Vizbee, a data/platform company focused on mobile-to-TV.

Tubi TV, an ad-based OTT-VOD service, said it has landed a $20 million round of funding led by Jump Capital alongside help from existing investor Foundation Capital, which led Tubi TV’s Series A round.

Tubi TV, which counts Sony-owned Crackle and Vudu among its competitors, said the new funding, which also included participation from Danhua Capital and Cota Capital, will be used to fuel growth and expansion and to bulk up its “premium” OTT ad inventory.

Jump Capital’s Yelena Shkolnik and Foundation Capital partner Joanne Chen were recently appointed to Tubi TV’s board of directors.

The San Francisco-based ad-VOD specialist has raised about $30 million, according to Crunchbase.

RELATED: Vudu Intros Free, Ad-Based OTT Option

Tubi TV’s content partners include Lionsgate, MGM, Paramount Pictures and Starz. MGM Studios and Lionsgate made equity investments in adRise, the company behind Tubi TV in 2015, thought the amount was not disclosed.

RELATED: Advertising Stokes OTT’s Fire (subscription required)

Tubi TV said it now touts a VOD library of more than 50,000 titles, and that its audience grew by a 9x growth rate in monthly active users in 2016.

Tubi TV supports several platforms, including web browsers, Android and iOS mobile devices, Roku players, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV devices, Xbox One and Xbox 360 consoles, the Chromecast streaming adapter, as well as connected TVs and Blu-ray players from Sony, and Samsung smart TVs.

Metro-Goldwyn Mayer Studios and Lionsgate have made undisclosed equity investments in adRise, the company behind Tubi TV, a free, ad-based on-demand OTT offering that competes with services such as Sony-owned Crackle.

Tied in, MGM and Lionsgate will also license “library content” to Tubi TV, a free VOD service launched in April 2014 that runs on iOS and  Google mobile devices, the Amazon Fire TV, Roku players and Roku TVs, the  Xbox One and Xbox 360, Samsung connected devices  and Apple TV. They said the deal spans “hundreds” of titles, including Midnight Cowboy, Crash, Rain Man, and The Hurt Locker, Fargo, and American Psycho.

Tubi TV, which inked a movie and TV deal with Paramount Pictures earlier this year, said the Lionsgate and MGM titles will add to its current library of about 40,000 movies and TV shows.

Tubi TV said viewership on its platform have increased 400% over the past year.

In addition to the investment and content licensing deal, Sandy Grushow, former chairman of Fox Television Entertainment Group and CEO of Phase 2 Media, has joined the Tubi TV board. Cota Capital has also come on board as an investor.

"Consumers want more streaming premium content without subscribing to yet another app or paying for another channel. Tubi TV's mission is to make premium content accessible to everyone, everywhere, without having to pay more. Tubi TV will always be free,’ said Farhad Massoudi, founder and CEO of Tubi TV, in a statement.

"We're delighted to partner with Farhad and his team at Tubi TV as we continue to ensure that our content is being monetized across every platform, digital and linear, ad-supported and subscriber-based, domestically and internationally," added Jim Packer, Lionsgate’s president of Worldwide Television & Digital Distribution. "This agreement reflects our ongoing commitment to license our content across an expanding array of ad-supported digital platforms and serve next generation audiences around the world."

"MGM's investment and license agreements enable the studio to expand into OTT services, allowing consumers to find MGM films and series on multiple platforms,” said John Bryan, president, domestic television distribution at MGM.

Tubi TV, the free, ad-supported VOD service that grapples with with Crackle, has expanded its screen mix with the launch of apps for the iOS platform and Web browsers.

Those apps, which currently carry the “beta” label, added support for the Roku platform in June. Tubi TV, a product of adRise, launched in April, debuting on the Amazon Fire TV and the Xbox 360. Platforms targeted for the future include the Kindle Fire, Samsung and Sony smart TVs, TiVo, and Western Digital’s WD TV media player.

Tubi TV launched with a library of 3,000 movies and TV shows – mostly older titles – and plans to expand its vault to more than 20,000 titles by the end of this year or sometime in 2015.

Crackle, a unit of Sony Pictures Television that is complementing its library fare with dozens of original episodes, already supported several platforms, including Web browsers, iOS and Android devices, TVs from Sony, Samsung, LG and Toshiba, Roku, the Apple TV, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, Playstation 3 and 4, and the Xbox 360 and Xbox One, among others.

Tubi TV, an ad-supported online VOD service that launched in April, has recently expanded its reach to the Roku platform, which includes a lineup of stand-alone streaming devices, a new $49.99 HDMI streaming stick, and, soon, direct integrations with select TV manufacturers. 

Tubi TV, a product of adRise that counts Crackle among its competitors, launched with support on the Amazon Fire TV and the Xbox 360. Tubi TV is also working on support for several other platforms, including Web browsers, Android- and iOS-powered tablets and smartphones, the Kindle Fire, Samsung and Sony smart TVs, TiVo boxes, and Western Digital’s WD TV media player.

 After starting off with a library of 3,000 movies and TV shows, Tubi TV plans to expand it to more than 20,000 by the end of this year or sometime in 2015.

Meanwhile, Crackle, a unit of Sony Pictures Television, also offers a vault of older library content but recently introduced a lineup that will also feature more than 100 episodes of original programming.

Crackle’s supported platforms include browsers, iOS and Android devices, TVs from Sony, Samsung, LG and Toshiba, Roku, the Apple TV, Chromecast, Amazon fire TV, Playstation 3 and 4, and the Xbox 360 and Xbox One, among others.

Tubi TV will be going after Crackle’s market with the debut of a free, ad-supported VOD service that will initially be offered on Roku devices, the new Amazon Fire TV box, and the Xbox 360 and start with about 3,000 movies and TV titles.

Tubi TV, a product of adRise, a company that specializes in OTT content distribution and ad platforms that counts Starz Digital Media among its partners, plans to expand its VOD library and the number of devices supported in the weeks and months ahead.

The near term plan, company execs said, is to offer about 20,000 titles on its platform this year or sometime in 2015,  and to extend access in the coming months to Web browsers, Android- and iOS-powered tablets and smartphones, the Google Chromecast, Kindle Fire tablets, Samsung and Sony smart TVs, TiVo devices and the WD TV streaming player.

“We’re trying to elevate the amount of quality content that’s available for free” using a “no barrier to entry” model, adRise CEO Farhad Massoudi said, noting that the goal is to complement, rather than compete with,  subscription-based services like Hulu Plus and Netflix.

Tubi TV’s focus, he said, will be on free, high-quality content, including titles out of the U.K. and other parts of the world that will be new to U.S. audiences. Tubi TV’s business is based on a revenue sharing model.

Tubi TV said its library is made up of films, cartoons and other kids fare, comedy, cooking shows, documentaries, and fitness programs, among other themes. Specific shows include “British TV and Nordic Noir” such as Black Books, Father Ted, and The Sandhamn Murders.

AdRise, a company launched about three and half years ago, has a heritage of enabling branded VOD apps for companies such as Starz, Discovery Communications and Hasbro Studios, and estimates that about 30% of the VOD apps on the Samsung platform are managed by AdRise. It has also managed and built several apps for the new Amazon Fire TV box.

With Tubi TV, it’s now starting to leverage its historic relationships with programmers and studios, including ITV of the U.K. and South Korean major broadcaster MBC, and apply content distribution deals toward its new direct-to-consumer service.

Historically AdRise has implemented campaigns for more than 200 brands in the past year, including Lexus, said Thomas Ahn Hicks, head of business and development and strategy, noting that Tubi TV will offer a mix of direct sales and a more programmatic model that uses a real-time bidding system.

As for the ad load, Tubi TV expects to halve the seven or eight minutes per half hour seen on traditional TV, he said.

“We think all TV ads ultimately will be targeted, measurable and interactive,” Massoudi said.

San Francisco-based AdRise has raised $4 million and has about a dozen employees. Massoudi said the company has turned profits at times, but is now “investing heavily into Tubi TV right now.”