It may not have the cultural cachet of its streaming rivals, but Tubi certainly has the viewers.
The free, ad-supported streaming service hit an average audience of 1 million viewers in May, its most-watched month ever and a 46 percent increase from a year prior, according to Nielsen data cited by the Los Angeles Times.
That million-viewer tally also means Tubi had a higher average May viewership than Disney+, Peacock, Max, and Paramount+, according to the Times. It also beat out other platforms in free, ad-supported streaming TV — or FAST, for short — like Roku Channel and Pluto TV.
Tubi’s win comes in an era of “streamflation,” as Netflix, Disney+, Max, and Peacock have raised prices and as Netflix and Prime Video have started showing ads on its platforms.
And the streamer appeals to younger viewers. The median age of Tubi viewers is 39, compared to 57 for Fox and 64 for CBS in primetime, according to Vulture. Plus, about half of Tubi viewers are “multicultural,” and the steamer offers collections of Black cinema, Bollywood films, K-dramas, and LGBTQ+ content among its 250,000 movies and TV episodes.
Now the Fox Corp.-owned Tubi is venturing into original programming, having notched 200 original movies and series since 2021. Peter Dinklage and Juliette Lewis have started filming a dark Western film titled The Thicket for Tubi. And this fall, Lauren Graham will star in a Tubi comedy series titled The Z-Suite, playing an advertising agency mogul who, after getting fired as CEO, must claw her way back to the top as her firms’ older C-Suite and rising Gen Z employees collide.
Also on the Tubi development slate is The QB Bad Boy and Me, based on a smash-hit YA novel on Wattpad; My Crazy Quince, a reality series featuring generations of women discussing their quinceañeras; and a 90-minute special continuing the story of Wynonna Earp, according to a press release from the company.