In a major shakeup at one of the leading free streaming platforms sees the founder and CEO of Tubi Farhad Massoudi exiting the company that he sold to the Fox Corporation in 2020 for $440 million. The news is part of an overall restructuring of Fox’s digital video business. Fox’s president of digital Paul Cheesbrough has been named the CEO of the newly formed Tubi Media Group. The Tubi streaming service will look for a new CEO to report to Cheesbrough according to Deadline.
This new division of Fox Corp. will oversee three separate digital businesses:
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Tubi Streaming: This silo will be the home for all of Fox’s ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) and free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) operations.
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AdRise: The large-scale video service will handle all of the advertising needs for Tubi, Fox Sports, Fox Entertainment, Fox News, Fox-owned TV stations, and other video outlets owned by the company.
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Fox Digital Platforms Group: Blockchain Creative Labs, Credible, and the platforms that serve Fox’s sports, news, and entertainment products.
Not coincidentally, AdRise is named for the original ad network that Massoudi founded before using the lessons learned to launch Tubi in 2010. Since being acquired by Fox in 2020, Tubi has seen an impressive amount of growth. In December alone, the ad-supported service saw a 41% increase in viewing time leading to the highest month of user engagement in its 13-year history.
Then, in February, Tubi made history as thefirst free streaming service to crack 1% of total TV viewing time according to Nielsen.
The success of the platform has been so impressive that Fox has reportedly turned down multi-million dollar offers for Tubi, believing that the future of the service far exceeds the offers the company has received. As ad-supported streaming continues to be viewed as a cost-efficient alternative to cable and pricey subscription streamers, Fox clearly sees a bright future for the service.
Tubi has recently inked a deal to bring Warner Bros. Discovery programming to the service. In most cases, that is library content that that was no longer drawing viewers on HBO Max, but it also included never-before-seen episodes of “The Nevers,” which was canceled before being able to finish its initial run.
The refocusing of Fox’s digital business with Tubi front and center seems like a sure indication that the company believes heavily in its future. With new voices overseeing the operation, don’t be surprised if Tubi becomes more and more a part of Fox’s plans moving forward.
Tubi
Tubi is a free video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 200,000+ movies and TV episodes - more than any other streaming service. Its ad breaks are shorter and less frequent than most free services. Fox executives have called their service “TV on steroids.”