Tubi Viewing Time Rises 36% in Latest Quarter; Fox CEO Says 90% of Viewing on Service is On-Demand
Tubi finished Fox’s fiscal third quarter just behind Disney+ in terms of total TV viewing time, and may continue to climb.
It will be hard to stop Tubi on its current trajectory. Fox’s free ad-supported streaming service released new data on Wednesday as part of the company’s fiscal third-quarter earnings report, and the numbers show yet another fantastic three-month period. Tubi continues to make gains in users, overall viewing time, and TV-watching market share, keeping its place as one of the most successful ad-supported streaming platforms on the market.
Key Details:
- Tubi revealed in mid-March that it had 78 million monthly active users.
- Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch says that 90% of viewing time on Tubi is on-demand.
- The streamer is the fastest-growing platform in terms of TV viewing market share of any service.
Total viewing time on Tubi rose 36% in the most recent quarter, and revenue generated by the streamer was up 22%. The streamer unveiled in mid-March that it had grown to 78 million monthly active users, and considering that its fiscal third quarter ended March 31 this is around the same number the streamer finished the quarter with.
Fox CEO Murdoch also touted the streamer’s growth against its peers when discussing Fox’s quarterly earnings, including paid subscription services like Netflix and Prime Video. Tubi was added to Nielsen’s monthly “The Gauge” report which measures how much total TV viewing time each streamer accounts for in February, and since then its market share has risen more than 60%.
“That’s faster than any streaming service during the same time,” Murdoch said.
In March 2024, Tubi accounted for 1.6% of total TV viewing in the United States. The 1% threshold is considered the standard to reach by streamers, and Tubi’s number puts it ahead of streaming heavyweights like Max, Paramount+ and Peacock, as well as competing ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) services like Pluto TV and The Roku Channel.
Audiences Leaning in for Tubi
Murdoch also let slip a fascinating nugget of information regarding Tubi during the earnings conference call. Despite the fact that the service offers around 270 free ad-supported TV (FAST) channels, Murdoch says that 90% of viewing on the service is on-demand, meaning customers are seeking out and watching specific titles instead of turning on a live channel and simply watching whatever is streaming there at the moment.
“This is very important because when the viewing comes on demand and it’s proactively on demand as opposed to passively sort of sitting back and watching our FAST channels, that’s much more valuable to advertisers,” the CEO explained.
That number speaks to the strength of Tubi’s library, which contains hundreds of thousands of movies and TV episodes. Many customers report being frustrated and overwhelmed by having too many choices on streaming services, which is why free streaming channels that deliver already-chosen lists of shows and movies are so popular. Perhaps the AI-augmented search function that Tubi launched last fall is helping bring customers to new on-demand shows and movies more quickly and easily than other streamers’ search features.
Whatever the case, Tubi has a strong presentation for advertisers ready to go at next week’s upfronts. The streamer continues to make impressive gains in users and viewing time, and the large majority of on-demand viewing on the service will play very well with advertising executives.
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.”