Tubi’s Chief Content Officer Believes Streaming Numbers Will Continue Climbing Even After the Pandemic

While the coronavirus put a hamper on so many industries, the streaming vertical was certainly not one of them. As people were forced to stay at home, they turned to their streaming services in order to keep themselves entertained while on lockdown. Though subscriber and viewership numbers for SVODs such as Netflix and Disney+ saw a spike, the AVODs also grew significantly.

Now eight months into the pandemic, new viewing trends have emerged, however, the question of what will happen when the world goes back to normal still looms. Tubi’s chief content officer, Adam Lewinson believes that even after the pandemic passes, the streaming industry will still attract and retain new customers.

During Fierce Video’s Stream TV virtual conference today, Lewinson stated, “The way I look at it…trend lines were always going in the direction of streaming, this year has just hastened that. I don’t know that, that changes. Are we gonna see a temporary dip as people go outside again? Maybe, but I think the underlying amount of consumption that Americans have with more broadly defined television is not gonna change.”

He continued, “If there’s a little bit of a blip, we’ll go back. If in the summertime it goes down a bit because people are feeling safe and it’s beautiful again outside, well, it’s gonna get cold again in the fall. So, I have a feeling a year from now, if things are going great…we will look and see that trends are continuing.”

Earlier today, Tubi announced they teamed with PlayStation 5 for its launch on Nov. 12, giving the AVOD a featured position on its home screen.

In September, the free streaming service announced today that their monthly active users broke the record in August, reaching 33 million, a 65 percent increase year-over-year. Not only that, but the company also revealed that their total viewing time has surpassed 200 million hours streamed each month since April.