Within the past year Tubi has upped efforts and made a concerted push to tap into creators in support of a content strategy focused on fandoms – most recently striking a partnership with social video giant TikTok. But that doesn’t mean the Fox-owned free streamer plans to make short-form content feeds a prominent part of its AVOD platform.
In a competitive entertainment space, Tubi is laser focused on leaning into what it does well and what makes it unique in the free AVOD space which is why, “we are not getting into shorts. We are committed to long-form,” said Tubi CEO Anjali Sud regarding content on the platform while speaking at an event in New York City last Thursday.
Her comments came in the context of differentiating against competition and were made at an event hosted by The Paley Center for Media featuring a conversation between Sud and Red Seat Ventures CEO Chris Balfe, moderated by Axios media correspondent Sara Fischer and attended by StreamTV Insider.
Competition is intense but Tubi views its scaled AVOD model as unique
When it comes to competition, in Sud’s view, everyone across the streaming video ecosystem is a competitor – meaning paid SVODS like Netflix, social video like TikTok, YouTube, as well as other free ad-supported streaming TV platforms.
But while competition is intense, the CEO also believes Tubi is one of only a few players with its level of scale and model of a fully free ad-supported video on-demand streaming platform – emphasis on VOD.
She stressed the distinction between Tubi’s free streaming platform where the vast lion’s share of content and viewing is in a VOD environment versus others commonly known as FASTs (like Paramount’s Pluto TV, smart TV OEMs like Samsung TV Plus or LG Channels for example) that primarily offer lineups of linear programmed free streaming TV channels.
“That’s just a different audience and a different use case,” Sud commented.
Tubi’s NewFronts presentation pitch to ad buyers earlier in the week also positioned its on-demand viewing audience as more intentional and leaned-in versus those on linear FAST as they’re arguably making a more active choice about what to watch.
In that sense, from an AVOD perspective, she categorized YouTube as the closest competitor. And while Tubi has proven to be an AVOD force, regularly capturing around 2% of monthly TV time share as well as outpacing paid SVODs from major media companies on Nielsen’s monthly Gauge U.S. tracker – YouTube still significantly reigns supreme in that ranking.
In that environment, as a scaled free AVOD player that sees YouTube as a closer competitor, Sud said Tubi’s view is “how do we think about long-form storytelling and really leaning into what we do?”
“How do we differentiate so that we’re offering that free AVOD model, but we’re providing something else…” she continued, leading to her comments about Tubi not getting into shorts and the commitment to long-form content, even against the backdrop of a creator push.
Tubi sees the mix of free and long-form, curated premium content that also taps voices outside of traditional Hollywood avenues, alongside a personalized UX, as aspects that help the streamer standout in a crowded space.
“It’s why you see us working with creators to elevate their storytelling and bring them into Hollywood because that’s something we uniquely can do,” Sud commented, adding it’s also why Tubi has produced 400 original movies, albeit not with Netflix-sized budgets.
But it all comes back to Tubi’s aim to serve up programming that caters to audiences who are passionate about the genres, the stories, and those who make them – a guiding thesis that in part underpins how the AVOD picks which content, creators and projects to pursue.
“It’s based on what our fans and the most passionate sort of fans on Tubi love and they can’t get enough of,” she noted, reiterating her view that space Tubi’s model is pretty unique at this point.
By committing to free access and long-form content, including from creators, that’s meant to foster engaged and avid audiences, Sud said Tubi believes it has a winning strategy in the long-term.
Tubi creator efforts still early, but have focused on long-form
Tubi has made multiple moves on the creator front, but Sud was sure to emphasize that while moving quickly it’s still relatively new to the creator space.
Since starting the effort in earnest roughly eight or so months ago, the AVOD now counts over 16,000 episodes of creator content.
“About 10% of Tubi viewers are watching creator content,” Sud said, where most of its audience growth thus far has been driven by consumption of Hollywood-made content.
And Tubi’s CEO noting the company isn’t getting into shorts and is committed to long-form content may not come as a complete surprise when looking at how it has approached creators and their content so far.
When it added 5,000 syndicated episodes of existing creator content last year from popular YouTubers, they’re mainly longer format series and episodes (such as Alan Chikin Chow’s “Alan’s Universe” which typically run roughly 25 minutes, or comedy creator Steven He’s “FishBowl” series, also running around 30 minutes per episode, as just a couple of examples). It also inked a multi-title creator-led original film deal with Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat entertainment company.
The recent partnership with TikTok also is specifically about selecting popular creators from the social video platform to develop long-form series for Tubi. The AVOD said it’s looking for those TikTok creators that can make the jump from short-form to full-length, premium TV shows and movies.
Tubi open to different formats
Still, the comments about a commitment to long-form are notable given Tubi’s size, recent but strong creator push, and the fact that younger audiences’ appear unabated in their consumption and engagement with short-form and social video.
They also come against the backdrop of an ecosystem where streaming platforms at large appear to be at least thinking about, if not testing and deploying, ways to capitalize on or tap into the consumer appetite for short-form vertical video and creators and their content.
Also of note, while not necessarily applicable to Tubi specifically, parent Fox last fall invested in short-form vertical video company Holywater, which offers serialized short-form vertical video dramas – a content category of its own that has seen its own rise in popularity with microdrama apps.
However, Sud’s comments don’t mean Tubi has or will shy away from additional formats or non-traditional TV content - as seen by the types of shows and films, as well as creators and filmmakers outside of legacy Hollywood already coming to the platform.
“Our job is to help every story find its fandom, not the opposite, which is I want one story that everybody watches,” Sud said. “I think it’s that difference, that is what we do.”
It is worth mentioning Tubi has already tried its hand at leveraging short vertical video clips on mobile with a feature called Scenes that was introduced back in 2024. Scenes are meant to help Tubi viewers find what to watch by allowing them to scroll through short clips from full-length movies and TV shows, with an option to save content and get personalized recommendations.
But again here, the focus of the feature leads to long-form, where clips give viewers a taste and can direct or entice them to full-length TV shows and movies on Tubi - rather than the AVOD acquiring or producing content that’s fully short-form in nature or its entirety.
Others like Peacock,Disney+ and Tubi-parent’s Fox One are among streamers that have also taken steps to incorporate vertical video mobile feeds, in part to boost engagement and tap into younger consumer behaviors - including via clips that drive users to longer-form content.
Key to success? Clarity of focus and a flywheel that works
Tubi is somewhat of a standout in the free space, achieving profitability for the first time last fall and reaching milestones last summer of 100 million monthly active users and 1 billion viewing hours.
Tubi has grown profitably through a pure-play AVOD model. An interesting thing about the success, according to Sud, is that the way Tubi got there is “very unexciting.”
“It’s a flywheel business that the wheel, just through scale, gets better and better and better,” she commented.
Meaning Tubi hasn’t had one or several break-out mega hits that helped define the service. Instead, it’s spent a decade growing the content library, improving personalization and working to ensure the free streaming experience is a good one for viewers.
Alongside adding creator content Tubi counts 300,000 movies and TV episodes and nearly 400 originals.
Another key component to success is the “clarity of focus” for Tubi, which is all about deepening engagement and time spent on the platform.
Per Sud, Tubi runs thousands of experiments per year and AB tests everything with only one metric: Viewer engagement.
When Sud left Vimeo to join the Fox AVOD as CEO in mid-2023, she said the entire team had one KPI that they were evaluating on “and it was viewing time, not revenue, not profits.”
It’s a focus that Tubi hasn’t deviated from. And where having that clarity “enables you to just be really, really good at this one thing and get better and better.”
UGC not likley for Tubi
Back to competition, Sud likened the scale Tubi’s achieved to more of a YouTube in that it’s free and ad supported. But again, where Tubi’s concentrated on produced, curated long-form content versus the vast amount of user-generated content found on YouTube.
Although Tubi offers a mix of content, including from creators, it doesn’t allow users to upload their own video content like they can on YouTube.
Not allowing UGC content is something “I don’t see changing” for Tubi, Sud said, as the Fox-owned AVOD wants to remain a curated, brand-safe programming environment.
What is changing from the CEO’s lens is the definition of “premium” content, as Tubi believes the premium designation is decided by whether the audience loves the content, rather than budget size or if it was created in Hollywood versus a homegrown creator studio.
Even in a highly competitive market that’s only increasingly so, “I think what’s exciting about that is that we should be able to continue” the growth path based on signals Tubi sees, Sud said.
For example, she noted Tubi grew engagement in the most recent reported quarter faster than the six quarters prior while also driving profitability.
“It’s not because we’re doing anything magical. It’s because our model works for where the audience is going. And at some point those tailwinds, you can’t stop them and it’s our job to just ride them as much as we can.”
Synergy with Red Seat Ventures
Although Tubi’s tapping into audience passion by bringing social video creators and non-traditional storytellers into the long-form and premium CTV environment, Fox has also brought on somewhat of an inverse approach with its acquisition roughly a year ago of podcast and digital media company Red Seat Ventures.
Housed within the Tubi Media division, Red Seat sees itself as a one-stop-shop of services for creators and their direct-to-consumer businesses. That includes helping clients build, monetize (mostly via advertising revenue but also subscriptions) and distribute their own DTC brand businesses to cultivate and tap into fandoms and communities through formats like video podcasts and live events.
As Axios’ Fischer noted during the event, in contrast to Tubi pulling social-first and often younger creators into the fold, Red Seat is a bit of the reverse. The company has helped more traditional or legacy TV “talking heads” and well-known cable media personalities, including former Fox News hosts like Meghan Kelly and Bill O'Reilly, port into more digital-first or social creator environments.
To Balfe, that’s the key point as the worlds of traditional and UCG or social video and creator content continue to blend and merge – saying, ultimately “we’re all going to the same place.”
It also appears to be part of both of the Fox-owned companies’ approach to tapping into passionate audiences of different kinds by showing up where they are and serving the stories, content or personalities these cohorts love, so that they engage longer, louder, more often and in multiple ways.
The efforts aren’t totally siloed either, with some synergies between Tubi and Red Seat, such as popular true crime podcast “Crime Junkie” – a Red Seat Ventures client that is now also available on Tubi.
“It’s really Chris is bringing the relationship and Tubi is bringing that incremental audience,” Sud said.
Tubi’s 100 million MAU count was mostly built with audiences tuning into Hollywood-produced content on the platform as creator content efforts are still in early stages.
Although portions of the Tubi audience are tuning in, it’s still “building something from scratch,” she acknowledged. Meaning Tubi isn’t only looking for creators that will hit the mark with its audiences but working to prove to creators that its platform is a place to grow theirs. And where cross-over with Red Seat Venture clients can help on both fronts.
Sud cited synergy its ability to work with the leading true crime podcaster of “Crime Junkie” to deliver that content to audiences and simultaneously prove the value the AVOD audience brings and that it can be incremental for the creator and their business.
“That’s really I think what we’re trying to do,” she said.