Tubi Reaches 70M Monthly Users, 30% Revenue Growth

It's good Tubi in ad-supported streaming for Fox. During a Q1 fiscal earnings call today, Fox touted the growth of its ad-supported streamer, Tubi, even amid an overall advertising dip. "At Tubi, we had another enviable quarter, delivering 30% of revenue growth driven by an impressive 65% lift in total view time," said Lachlan Murdoch, executive chairman and CEO of Fox Corp. The Fox CEO noted that the service passed 70 million monthly active users in September and reached nearly 4 billion streaming hours in the first half of the calendar year. According to Murdoch, the high engagement comes from Tubi's ever-increasing library of more than 60,000 titles, 300 FAST channels and its introduction of Rabbit AI for fueling recommendations and search. The CEO noted that a recent study found Tubi had the fastest growth among young, diverse populations, with 33% of Tubi streamers being unreachable on other top AVODs. Tubi Takes Viewers Down the Rabbit Hole With AI-Powered Recommendations Despite Tubi's growth, as well as a boost in viewership from the broadcast of the FIFA Women's World Cup and college football, overall advertising revenues decreased 2%. Growth at Tubi and the World Cup was more than offset by comparably lower political TV advertising revenues at Fox Television Stations and the impact of elevated supply in the direct response marketplace at Fox News Media, according to the company. Fox reported a quarterly net income of $415 million as compared to $613 million for the same quarter in 2022. During the call, Murdoch acknowledged there was "softness" in the entertainment advertising market and said "Tubi is not immune from that softness," adding that Tubi CEO Anjali Sud is focused on how to better monetize the platform amid its growth in engagement and viewership. Sud took the CEO job following Farhad Massoudi's surprising exit earlier in the year. "We understand there is inconsistency around the broader advertising market, particularly in entertainment," Murdoch said during the call. "But our focus on live sports and news continues to deliver with healthy national pricing and demand in addition to continued momentum at Tubi." The Fox CEO said that, when it comes to Tubi, the company has "earned the right" to take a "greater share of wallet" from advertisers due to continued audience growth. Bundling up Regardless of the company's streaming success, and despite companies such as Disney seemingly getting away from linear in the future, Murdoch also reiterated Fox's continued efforts in broadcast TV. The Real Impact of the Disney and Charter Deal: A ‘Canary in a Coal Mine’ "From a Fox perspective, the cable bundle, cable distribution or pay-TV distribution, it remains our largest and really most important revenue stream," Murdoch said. "And we believe that it will remain our largest for years to come. We feel the success of our distribution partners is our success as well." Murdoch reiterated that the company isn't interested in removing its premium content from cable bundles and noted the continued audience demand for sports and news. "We are very confident in the future of linear advertising when you can deliver on the audiences that we deliver with the brands, and the brand safety that we also can offer our clients," Murdoch said.

Streaming & OTT

Tubi Reaches 70 Million Monthly Active Users, 30% Revenue Growth

The news comes amid Fox's overall ad revenue dipping in the quarter

Bill Bradley

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Bill Bradley