Meet Tubi, the newest entrant into the UK's streaming market

Tubi will offer ad-supported free streaming services for more than 20,000 British, Indian and Nigerian films and TV Shows

Tech Desk - Jul 03, 2024

An undated image of a Tubi advertisement. — Tubi

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is bringing Tubi, an ad-supported free streaming service, to the UK.

The UK’s streaming market is already heavily saturated, with big players like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+ offering similar services.

The platform has slowly been gaining traction in the US, where Fox claims it has 60 million active users.

Murdoch bought Tubi in 2020 for $440 million, aiming to capture younger audiences. This endeavour will be challenging, as all the major streaming giants either support ad-supported free services or have increased their prices to boost revenue.

There is immense pressure to expand content libraries and invest more money.

Tubi says it will offer more than 20,000 films and TV shows from Lionsgate, Disney, NBCUniversal, and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Users will also have access to a selection of British, Indian, and Nigerian content.

“Tubi has spent the last decade honing our approach to vast, free, and fun streaming in North America, and we feel that now is the perfect time to bring that recipe to UK audiences,” said Tubi chief executive Anjali Sud.

In March of this year, Mr Murdoch’s TalkTV, launched in 2022, announced its transition to an exclusively online format.

Murdoch may have attempted to recreate the success he had with Sky in the 1980s, but that was not to be.

Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox sold its 39% stake in Sky to NBCUniversal’s owner, Comcast, in 2018.