Are you making fun of Tubi? Big mistake. Huge. The streaming service platform that produced films like Titanic 666 And Most Wanted Santahas sometimes been the subject of jokes towards certain original low-budget shows and just the name, Tubi. But Tubi is laughing now.
Last spring, the free and legal streaming service Tubi attracted a record number of viewers, according to Nielsen data first reported by the Los Angeles Times. Tubi’s average audience jumped 46% in a year, reaching 1 million in May. It has overtaken traditional streamers including Disney+, Peacock, Paramount and Max, the Times added.
The rise of Tubi can be attributed to the secular value of a transaction. And the best offer, of course, costs nothing. “Tubi’s momentum is the result of a veritable flywheel in streaming: we are free (and determined to stay that way),” said Anjali Sud, CEO of Tubi, in a statement to Fortune, adding that they have “the world’s largest library of content with a diverse set of stories and storytellers.” Having only joined Tubi in 2023, Sud recognizes that this is part of Tubi’s style, a model in which “we have invested consistently for over a decade”.
“It’s different from being 100% free. We do not ask you to subscribe to any ad tier or subscription tier,” Sud said in April on the Ringers podcast The city with Matthieu Belloni of the success of ad-funded streamers.
“We’re not trying to sell you,” she added, noting that it’s “as easy to start watching a movie on Tubi as it is to open TikTok.” The free nature of Tubi becomes even more attractive as other platforms increase their prices.
As each network rolls out its own one-word streaming service, the market begins to oversaturated and become expensive. In 2023, the Wall Street Journal predicted that the cost of watching one of the major ad-free streaming platforms would increase by 25% in a year.
In fact, prices have inflated as FortuneIt is Rachyl Jones reported in November that half of the major U.S. streaming platforms were charging monthly fees twice the price they charged when they first entered the scene.
Apple increased prices, just like Peacock and Max. Netflixwhich does not disclose its audience, recently cracked down on account sharing (much to the dismay of many adult children) and announced that it was about to do so. increase prices again this year. While he knew record profits During the first quarter, Netflix announced that it would stop tracking its subscribers after a period of slow growth before its password mandate.
Viewers are tired, as in November 2023, the monthly churn rate of major streamers reached 6.3%, an increase from 5.1% in the previous year, according to subscription analysis group Antenna. This is where Tubi strikes, when the iron is lukewarm.
“We see our value proposition resonate even more today with a highly engaged audience made up of mostly cord-cutters and non-cord-cutters,” says Sud. Fortune. She said Alarm the group that doesn’t pay for cable represents 60% of their audience. “We view our momentum as a good validation of our strategy and we will continue to build on our strengths and skate to where the puck is going,” she added. And Sud told Ringer that 40% of their audience is “not on other traditional streamers.”
Another key feature of Tubi is the length of its CVS receipt. catalog with more than 240,000 movies and TV shows, according to its CEO. They’re not looking for Oscar winners, because Sud says their younger audience “cares more about authenticity than rave reviews.”
And Sud focuses on that grassroots base that “doesn’t seem as represented in the prestige content that you see today.” Indeed, Tubi leans young, like RingtonesBelloni points out that almost half of the audience is between 13 and 30 years old. About half of the platform’s audience identifies as multicultural (which includes Black, Latino, Asian and LGBTQ+ users), the Times noted.
These young users, more likely to be economically vulnerable and therefore more affected by inflation, may find the appeal of a free platform more striking as they are forced to leave the major streaming platforms. They also watch television differently.
Free and accessible, it could win the game if the story of Tubi became a legend. “At the end of the day, we’re not competing with fast or streaming, we’re competing with social media, gaming and anything else that someone chooses to spend their time being entertained by,” says Sud .
