Fox’s Tubi has named Anjali Sud, current CEO of Vimeo, as the new chief executive officer of the free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) service.
Sud will step into the role at Tubi effective September 1, reporting to Paul Cheesbrough, CEO of Tubi Media Group. Sud is succeeding current Tubi CEO and founder Farhad Massoudi, who in April announced plans to exit alongside Fox’s formation of the Tubi Media Group division.
Sud spent around nine years at video platform Vimeo, including at the helm as CEO for the past six years. With news of her departure to join Tubi, Vimeo named board member Adam Gross as interim CEO starting in September. During her tenure at Vimeo the platform grew to over 300 million users. She also held senior roles as SVP and head of global marketing and general manager of the creator platform. Earlier in her career Sud held roles in finance, media and e-commerce with positions at Amazon, including director of marketing, and Time Warner.
“Anjali is a highly accomplished executive in the technology and media industry with a passion and track record for strategic disruption and authentic leadership,” said Cheesbrough in a statement. “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.”
Tubi, which boasts 64 million monthly active users, is now part of the Tubi Media Group unit which houses Fox’s standalone digital businesses. In addition to Tubi that also includes AdRise, Credible and Blockchain Creative Labs, along with digital platforms and teams underpinning Fox’s larger digital business in news, sports, and entertainment.
As interest and usage on FASTs ticks up, Tubi has marked both ad revenue growth and greater slice of TV viewing time. In May, Tubi captured a 1.3% share of total TV viewing time in the U.S., in line or outpacing usage on major FASTs Pluto TV (owned by Paramount) and The Roku Channel, as well as leading SVODs Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max and NBCUniversal’s Peacock, according to Nielsen’s The Gauge.
The Tubi FAST platform was acquired by Fox in 2020 for $440 million. It now offers a library of 50,000 titles and more than 200 FAST linear-style channels and a growing catalog of originals. And in the first three months of 2023, Fox reported double-digit percent increases for both revenue and viewing time, with ad revenue up 31% year over year to $170 million and total viewing time up 38%.
“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,” said Sud in a statement. “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.”