Fox Corporation reported good fiscal Q1 2023 earnings today, and thanks, in part, to the “impressive momentum” of Tubi. Unlike many other streaming services, Tubi is a completely free service that relies on ads to generate revenue. In spite of being free, Tubi offers access to a vast library of on-demand movies and shows, as well as some live TV channels.
Although ads are a big part of the Tubi experience, and the main money-maker for the platform, the actual ad experience isn’t that bad. Compared to some other services, Tubi takes a lighter approach to ads and this is likely to be one of the reasons why the service continues to see good levels of adoption and usage.
Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch described the situation at Tubi as “breathtaking” during the company’s latest quarterly earnings call. Specifically, Murdoch noted how revenue growth for the first fiscal quarter of 2023 was up “almost 30% over last year”. Adding to this, Murdoch also noted how “this marks the first time that Tubi revenue has surpassed the advertising revenue generated by FOX Entertainment in a meaningful way.” Looking forward, Murdoch anticipates more of the same, with Tubi now expected to perform even better in the current quarter.
Total viewing time on Tubi reached 1.3 billion hours, which was not only up more than 50% but also the free service’s “highest quarterly viewership ever”, according to Murdoch. Fox CFO, Steve Tomsic, made similar points, noting how the company is “making strong progress in both audience growth and monetization” with Tubi. In terms of the revenue, Tubi brought in $165 million, an increase of 29%, according to Tomsic.
In response to a question on why Tubi is doing so well, especially at a time when the digital advertising space is looking more uncertain than usual, Murdoch argued that Tubi is “a best-in-class AVOD service” and one that’s now benefiting from its AVOD market experience and ad-tech stack. Of course, Murdoch also took the opportunity to point out that Tubi has “the largest library available in the United States with 48,000 titles“, something that’s also likely to be helping the free streaming service attract and maintain users.
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