Key Points
- Fox-owned Tubi has partnered with Kickstarter to finance independent films and series that will premiere exclusively on the streaming service beginning in 2027.
- The Tubi x Kickstarter Fandom Fund will support projects across horror, comedy, reality, true crime and other genres, with one project receiving additional production funding.
- Separately, Tubi has launched Mixtapes, allowing viewers to create and share personalized collections of movies and television shows.
Fox-owned streaming service Tubi is partnering with Kickstarter to finance independent films and television series, expanding its efforts to bring programming from digital creators to its free, advertising-supported platform.
The new Tubi x Kickstarter Fandom Fund will provide production funding, promotion and distribution opportunities for independent creators, with selected projects premiering exclusively on Tubi beginning next year.
The program will support projects across several genres, including horror, comedy, reality, true crime and young adult entertainment. One selected project will receive additional funding to develop a full television series or feature film, the companies said in a statement.
The partnership builds on Tubi’s earlier FilmStream Collective Fund, which helped bring more than 20 independent films to the streaming service.
“The Fandom Fund gives emerging storytellers the resources to bring those ambitious ideas to life on a bigger canvas while preserving the creative voice, vision and ownership that made their work resonate,” said Rich Bloom, General Manager of Creator Programs and Executive Vice President of Business Development at Tubi.
According to data recently released by Ampere Analysis, Tubi is one of the free streaming services that has made strong investments in the creator economy, forging partnerships with TikTok and funding independent productions to bolster the type of content that young viewers want to see and advertisers want to buy.
The initiative is part of the Kickstarter Culture Fund, launched earlier this year to support independent projects in film, music, art and fashion. Neither company disclosed how much money would be available through the Fandom Fund or how many projects would receive financial support.
Separately, Tubi has introduced Mixtapes, a feature that allows viewers to assemble and share personalized collections of movies and television shows.
The feature lets users select programming from Tubi’s library of nearly 400,000 movies and television episodes, arrange titles in their preferred order and add descriptions to their collections. Viewers can build Mixtapes themselves or use Tubi’s recommendation tools to generate an initial collection that can be edited before sharing. Collections can also be kept private.
“Fans and community are central to Tubi and to what we build next,” Mike Bidgoli, the President and Head of Tubi, said in a statement. “We believe fans should have more ways to shape how they discover, share, and enjoy entertainment.”
Tubi is promoting the feature through partnerships with online creators who have assembled themed collections featuring horror, romantic comedies, martial arts films and nostalgic television programming. Mixtapes is available now through Tubi’s website and mobile applications.
