Tubi has reported strong growth in active users and viewed hours in its first year of an exclusive partnership with News Australia.
The free ad-supported streaming service grew viewed hours by 40 per cent year-on-year, daily active users by 30 per cent and monthly active users by 27 per cent.
With more than 125,000 movies and TV episodes, Tubi claims it is Australia’s largest free streaming library and in the past year secured licensing deals with Lionsgate, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Village Roadshow.
It formed an exclusive partnership with News Australia a year ago after Foxtel was acquired by DAZN. Tubi’s advertising sales were previously handled by Foxtel Media; now News Australia’s large sales operation, led by client partnerships managing director Lou Barrett, is representing Tubi in market.
For News Corp, Tubi adds premium CTV advertising inventory to its stable. News Corp has invested millions in an advertising campaign to raise awareness and grow Tubi subscribers.
“Tubi’s growth comes down to one simple thing: real value for consumers. It offers unmatched choice, completely free,” Barrett said.
“For advertisers, that translates to access to Australia’s fastest-growing streaming audience – lean-back viewers in a premium, full-screen environment with unskippable ads.”
Tubi executive VP and managing director, International, David Salmon said: “Twelve months ago, we set out to prove that free streaming could compete with subscription services in one of the world’s most sophisticated media markets.
“The results speak for themselves – Australians are watching more, staying longer, and building viewing habits that keep them coming back. Tubi entertains over 100 million monthly active users globally, and our partnership with News Australia has been transformative in bringing Tubi to audiences at scale in this key market.”
Last year, Salmon told B&T the aim is for Tubi to have similar penetration levels to the US, where it is watched by more than 90 million viewers (roughly a quarter of the population) and Canada, where it reaches more than a third of adults.
If Tubi could attract similar market penetration to the US it would need to reach around 7.2 million Aussies, which is higher than the current number of SVOD subscribers for market leaders Netflix, which has 6.2 million subscribers.
