The overwhelming majority of content streamed on Fox Corporation’s free television platform Tubi comes from its on-demand content library as opposed to linear content streams, Fox’s chief executive affirmed this week.
On a conference call with investors following Fox’s third quarter (Q3, calendar Q1) earnings release, CEO Lachlan Murdoch said more than 60 percent of Tubi’s 80 million monthly active users were former cable and satellite subscribers or people who have never subscribed to a pay TV package in the first place.
Without getting into specific numbers, Murdoch said Tubi experienced a 22 percent increase in revenue during the first three months of the year when compared to Fox Q3 2023. Tubi also logged a 36 percent increase in total viewing time and a 20 percent increase in monthly active users, Murdoch said.
Most streamers are watching Tubi’s on-demand library, which is largely comprised of content licensed from third parties like Lionsgate, Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), FilmRise and other studios and rights holders, along with some shows pulled from Fox’s TV network and a small amount of Tubi Originals.
“This positions to be very well as an important part of the growing digital streaming advertising marketplace,” Murdoch said on the call.
Tubi has been exceptionally important for Fox’s television business. The free streaming platform helped the TV segment earn $1.938 billion during the first three months of the year. The figure was lower because Fox’s broadcast network did not have a Super Bowl telecast in February as it did last year; when compared against the prior non-Super Bowl period, Fox’s TV segment revenue grew 6.4 percent.
Affiliate fees charged to cable and satellite companies accounted for the lion’s share of Fox’s TV revenue, with distribution revenue counted at $834 million during Fox Q3. While Fox’s broadcast network encountered the same soft advertising market as other traditional TV networks, an uptick in spending against Tubi’s streaming content helped offset pain points at the TV network and has become the bigger part of Fox’s TV advertising segment.
Fox has prioritized content investments in Tubi over the past few years, to include launching more than 270 linear content streams with licensed films and TV shows from Fox Sports, the NFL, NBA G-League, WBD, ABC News, NBC Universal, FilmRise, DAZN and others.
Viewers have responded well: Tubi accounted for 1.6 percent of all U.S. streaming in March, according to Nielsen’s The Gauge report. By comparison, Disney Plus had 1.7 percent of the streaming market share, while Peacock trailed behind Tubi with 1.3 percent market share.
Excluding YouTube, Tubi was the most-watched free streaming TV platform in March, Nielsen said. Comparable viewership data for April is expected to be released next week.
“The growth of Tubi continues to be incredibly strong,” Murdoch affirmed this week. “I think [total viewing time] growth comes from both new subscribers or new viewers finding the platform. As you’d be aware, we’ve very efficiently be marketing the platform to bring more people to it, and it’s becoming a wider and wider known and loved brand in the marketplace.”
While linear content streams are important to Tubi, Murdoch said the fact that most people are watching video on-demand content was “more valuable to advertisers.”
“It certainly is something that we’re going to make a big deal about at our Upfront presentations next week,” Murdoch affirmed.
