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Free streaming service Tubi is rivaling major players for viewership. Here’s how it’s winning
Thomas Fuller | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Tubi hit profitability this year doing what other streaming services are trying to: attract younger audiences who are willing to sit through ads.
The Fox Corp.-owned free streaming platform has long been among a sort of second tier of streaming services alongside lower-budget and less popular offerings like Pluto and The Roku Channel. But the free service is gaining traction and finding its footing in conversations with the big players.
In November, Tubi made up 2.1% of total streaming minutes on The Gauge, Nielsen’s monthly analysis of viewing trends, ahead of NBCUniversal’s Peacock and Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO Max. Google’s YouTube holds the top spot in the viewership tracker.
“Our fans come in, and they behave like [subscription streaming] viewers. The only difference is they don’t pay for it,” said Tubi’s chief marketing officer, Nicole Parlapiano, in an interview.
Netflix’s dominance in streaming has led many media companies to chase the same success, spending billions of dollars on original content to attract subscribers and strive for profitability.
In response, the cost of streaming has risen, with nearly every subscription platform instituting multiple price hikes in recent years and pushing consumers toward cheaper, ad-supported options. A crackdown on password sharing by some of the biggest players has also shaken up the space.
“People used to cut the cord, now they’re canceling subscriptions. And is that driving more consumption into free streaming? Absolutely,” Tubi Chief Content Officer Adam Lewinson told CNBC.
Tubi said it has more than 100 million monthly active users and 1 billion hours of streamed content per month. For comparison, Netflix reported more than 300 million subscribers as of late 2024, the last time it reported the metric, while Disney+ reported 131 million subscribers as of the end of September.
Nearly 60% of Tubi’s audience is made up of millennials or members of Generation Z, and nearly half are multicultural, Tubi said, citing an MRI-Simmons Cord Evolution Study of its audience.
Tubi bulks up its library by licensing films and TV series — some popular and some niche. The platform does produce original content, albeit at a smaller scale than its competitors. It’s also tapped Fox’s sports arsenal, airing two NFL games this year on Tubi, most notably the Super Bowl in February and a Thanksgiving Day game last month.
In total, Tubi boasts more than 300,000 titles on its platform.
Fox’s answer to streaming
In October, Fox reported that Tubi had reached profitability for the first time for the fiscal quarter ended Sept. 30, with Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch adding that it reached that milestone “earlier than expected.” Tubi reported 27% revenue growth for the quarter, which was driven by an 18% increase in total view time.
Murdoch said at the time the hope was for Tubi to continue on its trajectory so it could become “a meaningful contributor” to earnings in the near term.
The growth is validation for Fox, which took a different tack to the streaming game than its media peers. Its stock is up more than 40% this year, while other media stocks haven’t fared nearly as well amid a sea of uncertainty.
The company offloaded its entertainment assets to Disney in 2019, and its TV business — broadcast network Fox and cable networks like Fox News — consist mostly of news and sports. In 2020, the media company acquired Tubi for $440 million.
Since then, Tubi had been Fox’s main answer to streaming until recently, when the company launched Fox One, a direct-to-consumer streaming service of all Fox content for $19.99 per month. Murdoch has emphasized there are no plans for Fox One to produce original or exclusive content, leaving Tubi to shine with a digital and cost-conscious audience.
Free reigns
Paige Bulera, a 23-year-old from Buffalo, New York, said she doesn’t believe in paying for disappointment. That’s why Tubi has emerged as the winner amid all of her streaming apps.
Bulera said she watches movies more often than the average person and uses her sister’s logins for nearly all of the major streaming services. But with each subsequent price increase, she’s finding less satisfaction with their investment.
“Not only are they going up in price, it seems like with each price increase you’re losing things,” Bulera told CNBC. “It’s like now you can’t share accounts with people on Netflix, or even if it goes up in price, there’s still going to be ads.”
Jaque Silva | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Her slate of movies heavily leans toward horror. Tubi said the platform has the largest collection of horror content with 9,000 titles, while also offering fan favorites spanning genres like “Coraline,” “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “Tom and Jerry.”
“With Tubi, it’s completely free – you know you’re getting ads, but it’s promoted in a way where you can watch old movies, new movies, or Tubi originals, so that’s why I’m a big fan of the platform, mainly because of the fact that it’s cost-effective,” Bulera said.
A recent report from MoffettNathanson notes that streaming engagement remains strong at YouTube, followed by free, ad-supported platforms that include FAST channels like Tubi, Paramount Skydance’s Pluto, and Roku’s The Roku Channel.
Tubi executives say the platform often gets caught up in the same conversation as platforms like Pluto because it offers channels in a guide format that reflect the traditional linear model. However, since nearly all of its viewership is on demand – meaning viewers are selecting films and series from the library rather than tuning into a preprogrammed channel – Tubi argues it should swim in the same pool as subscription services like Netflix and Disney+.
“Ninety-five percent of people are coming in with the intent to watch what they want to watch, and they are leaned in. They’re not passive viewers,” said Tubi’s Parlapiano.
Executives say that selection process makes Tubi viewers more inclined to watch ads than those tuning into other free, ad-supported channels for more of a laid-back experience — or simply to have something on in the background. That’s a strong sales pitch for advertisers.
“We’re 100% ad-supported, which other streamers are not. Yes, they have ad-supported tiers, but it’s unclear on each platform how big those tiers are and how much viewing is happening in an ad-supported environment,” Parlapiano said.
On Fox’s most recent earnings call, CFO Steve Tomsic said the company’s overall TV advertising revenue was up 6%, primarily driven by Tubi’s growth.
Leaning into Gen Z
James Van Der Beek and Noah Beck in Tubi’s Sidelined 2: Intercepted
source: Tubi
With 58% of its viewers skewing young, Tubi has invested a lot of work into appealing to younger generations, according to company executives.
In June, Tubi launched Tubi for Creators, part of a broader push from the company into incorporating content creators into Hollywood.
“The idea behind it is to give creators a pathway to Hollywood that really allows them to maintain their authenticity that made them popular in the first place and maintain a lot of creative control,” said Rich Bloom, head of Tubi for Creators. “We launched with six creators and about 500 episodes of content, and we’re now up to well over 100 creators and over 10,000 episodes of content.”
Tubi has signed deals with well-known YouTube entertainers to add their existing episodes to the platform, such as Dan and Riya’s “Beverly Valley High” and FunnyMike’s series “Mr. Creepy Eyes.” It’s also been inking deals with independent filmmakers through Kickstarter-funded projects.
Bloom said Tubi has seen that the category is attracting new, younger audiences, and the “retention rate of those viewers is actually better than our general new viewers.”
Tubi’s Lewinson said the platform has been particularly successful with young adult movies, like “Sidelined” and “Sidelined 2,” starring TikTok star Noah Beck. The franchise has brought in nearly 20 million viewers alone, with the median age of new viewers watching the sequel just 21 years old, Lewinson added.
Tubi’s Sidelined 2: Intercepted
source: Tubi
“We are really proving that we can bring young viewers to a long-form streaming platform,” he said. “There’s a perception that they’re only interested in short-form – completely not accurate. So long as you have relevant content for their fandom, they’ll come to Tubi.”
Gen Z is also leaning into nostalgia, with older shows like “Columbo” and “Murder, She Wrote” popular on Tubi, too.
Tubi executives note its growing Gen Z and millennial audience is another selling point for advertisers.
“My acquisition team can go out and acquire whatever we can possibly find, but we’re finding that as we produce these types of stories, we’re really bringing in those viewers,” Lewinson said. “They’ll come in to watch ‘Sidelined,’ but then we’re following their journey to see what else they’re watching on the platform, and we’re making sure that we have plenty of those types of categories for those viewers to watch.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC upon Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant.
NEW DELHI: Govt on Saturday significantly increased export duties on diesel and aviation turbine fuel to dissuade oil refiners from exporting these fuels and to ensure adequate availability in the domestic market amid ongoing tensions in West Asia. The ministry of finance issued a series of notifications hiking the export duty on diesel by more than 150% – from Rs 21.5 per litre to Rs 55.5 per litre – with immediate effect. The levy on ATF, or jet fuel, was increased from Rs 29.5 per litre to Rs 42 per litre. The export duty on petrol continues to be nil. Under the revised structure, the special additional excise duty on high-speed diesel has been raised to Rs 24 per litre, while the road and infrastructure cess now stands at Rs 36 per litre, which means a large chunk will now flow to the Centre. Govt said these duties are not meant to boost revenue, but to stop fuel exporters from taking undue advantage of price differences. The Centre had, on March 27, imposed an export duty of Rs 21.5 per litre on diesel and Rs 29.5 per litre on ATF in a bid to check windfall gains, as fuel was in short supply in international markets due to a squeeze on energy supplies amid the military conflict and export curbs imposed by China. It had also slashed excise duty on diesel and petrol to shield consumers and oil companies from the impact of high crude prices. Retail prices of automobile fuels in India have not increased despite high volatility in the international crude market, while only a small part of the international price pressure has been passed on to domestic flights. The windfall tax on exports of diesel and ATF helps the Centre partly offset the impact of the excise duty cut. On March 27, govt had estimated revenue gains from export duties at around Rs 1,500 crore in a fortnight. The further hike in export duties is likely to lead to higher revenue gains. In a statement, the ministry of petroleum had said, “At a time when international diesel prices have surged sharply, the levy is designed to disincentivise exports and ensure that refinery output is directed first tow-ards meeting domestic demand.“
Stock markets are as turbulent as they have ever been. Those not used to seeing their wealth jump and plunge from day to day might well be wary of trying them out for the first time.
But by investing for the longer term, investors who pick a stocks and sharesISA will almost certainly do better than those who play it safe by holding savings in cash – and they will never pay tax on any earnings.
The average stocks and sharesISA account is worth over £65,000, significantly higher than the typical cash ISA, which holds less than £13,500.
“With UK inflation elevated at around 3 per cent over the past year, it’s not a great time to be sitting on cash, especially given that over the past 12 months, the average stocks and sharesISA grew around 11 per cent, compared to an average return of 3.48 per cent for cash ISAs,” explained Dan Moczulski, eToro UK’s managing director.
With the new tax year’s allowance now in effect – worth £20,000 per person – we asked five experts to pick one fund they would be willing to buy into themselves.
While not recommendations for everybody, they offer food for thought, as well as better diversification and lower risk than buying individual company shares.
Scottish Mortgage FTSE 100
Annabel Brodie-Smith, communications director of the Association of Investment Companies (AIC)
Brodie-Smith is going for the Scottish Mortgage FTSE 100 investment trust managed by Baillie Gifford.
This company invests around the world in exciting private companies like SpaceX and Revolut, as well as public-listed companies like Meta, Nvidia and ASML.
Get a free fractional share worth up to £100.
Capital at risk.
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Get a free fractional share worth up to £100.
Capital at risk.
Terms and conditions apply.
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They are aiming to invest in the companies shaping the future – a mix of technology, healthcare, consumer services and more. The trust currently trades on a 5 per cent discount and has low charges of 0.31 per cent. This is an investment trust for long-term investors with a high appetite for risk.
This fund went up 27 per cent in the last year and is up 68 per cent over five years.
iShares Over 15 Years Gilts Index Fund (UK)
Alan Miller, CIO at SCM Direct
This fund tracks the FTSE Actuaries UK Conventional Gilts Over 15 Years Index and is therefore a fund investing solely in sterling-denominated UK government bonds, with a minimum remaining maturity of 15 years. It holds 27 gilts, has net assets of £2.95bn, and carries a Morningstar Gold medal.
There are no performance fees and a charge of just 0.1 per cent a year.
Miller says: “One of the most compelling opportunities in the market is hiding in plain sight: UK government bonds.
“Here’s the number that stops people in their tracks: 4.95 per cent compounded over 10 years is a 62 per cent return before charges, backed entirely by the UK government and sheltered from tax inside an ISA.”
Gilt yields are close to multi-decade highs. Locking in a yield to maturity of nearly 5 per cent inside an ISA wrapper, where all income and gains are tax-free, is exceptional by historical standards, and at an ongoing charge of just 0.1 per cent per annum, virtually nothing is lost to fees.
He adds: “Boring has rarely looked this good. It’s the kind of deal most active fund managers can only dream of offering.”
This fund is basically flat over the last year and up 9 per cent over five years. That’s because interest rates have been very low – as they are now higher, it should fare better from here.
Man Income
Paul Agnell, head of investment research, AJ Bell
Of the Man Income fund, Agnell says: “The fund’s pragmatic and analytical managers, Henry Dixon and Jack Barrat, invest in undervalued UK companies across the market cap spectrum, which are paying a yield at least in line with the market. In order to avoid value traps, the managers also look at a firm’s cashflow and assets.”
So, the team seek out undervalued and unloved companies, of which the UK market continues to present opportunities.
Their investment process centres on identifying two types of stocks: those trading below their replacement cost (what it would cost today to replace a company’s assets and operations) that are also cash generative, and those where the market appears to be undervaluing profit streams.
The fund has made an excellent start to 2026, up over 10 per cent in the first two months alone and was up 28 per cent over 2025. Banks were a key contributor over 2025, led by Lloyds, but with strong contributions also coming from Barclays and Standard Chartered.
The charge on the Man Income fund is 0.9 per cent.
Murray International
Philippa Maffioli, Blyth-Richmond Investment Managers
Murray International aims to blend global diversification with a solid income stream. The yield is around 3.5 per cent.
Maffioli says: “I like Murray International’s focus on dependable cashflows and sensible valuations, rather than chasing the highest yield. It also isn’t tied to the UK market, so you’re spreading risk across regions and currencies.”
Day-to-day decisions now sit with Martin Connaghan and Samantha Fitzpatrick, but the approach remains consistent: sustainable income with long-term growth potential. If you reinvest the dividends, it can be a strong compounding option over time.
It charges fees of 0.5 per cent. It is up 36 per cent in the last year and up 60 per cent over five years.
Pantheon Infrastructure Plc
Jonathan Moyes, head of investment research, Wealth Club
Pantheon Infrastructure Plc aims to provide investors with some diversification away from global stock markets while providing the potential for attractive equity-like returns over the longer term.
The FTSE 250 trust co-invests alongside some of the world’s leading infrastructure managers. Its portfolio includes large-scale data centres, gas distribution networks, US renewable energy and storage developers, as well as one of Europe’s leading temperature-controlled logistics and transport businesses.
Moyes says: “These assets are prized for their mission-critical nature and long-term contracted revenue streams. Nonetheless, shares in Pantheon Infrastructure change hands at an attractive 13 per cent discount to net asset value.”
That means the shares in the fund are valued more highly than the actual fund, which means easy wins – if that discount narrows. Trusts’ valuations do not always do so, while others might trade at a premium – in other words, more than the sum of their parts.
Investors should note this is a high-risk investment and should form part of a diversified portfolio. The trust has total ongoing charges of 1.29 per cent. The fund is up 30 per cent in the last year, but is too new for a five-year view.
Depending on which investment platform you use, and like any other fund, there may also be share dealing costs, so look to minimise those where you can so they don’t eat into your long-term returns.
When investing, your capital is at risk and you may get back less than invested. Past performance doesn’t guarantee future results.
Trump says US begins the process of clearing the Strait of Hormuz as a favour to countries around the world
First container vessel, MV SELEN, arrives at Karachi Port after reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Photo: Express
The vessel MV SELEN arrived at Karachi Port on Saturday, becoming the first Pakistan-bound vessel to do so following the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz after more than a month of disruption caused by conflict in the Middle East.
In a statement, the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) said: “MV SELEN, operated by NLC (AP Line), has berthed at Karachi Port, marking the first Pakistan-bound container vessel arrival following recent disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.”
It added that the vessel, arriving from Jebel Ali, signalled the resumption of containerised trade and reinforced confidence in maritime supply chains.
Read: First Pakistani vessel carrying oil shipment arrives via Strait of Hormuz
The KPT said the development reflected effective coordination among port, shipping and logistics stakeholders to sustain cargo operations.
Although the Strait of Hormuz had remained disrupted since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, Pakistan continued to receive oil shipments, the first of which arrived on March 18. It also facilitated the passage of other shipments, with its flagged carriers operating under arrangements with Iran, allowing containers to transit through the strait.
Meanwhile, as talks between Iran and the US began in Islamabad under Pakistan’s mediation, President Donald Trump said US forces had begun clearing the Strait of Hormuz.
“We’re now starting the process of clearing out the Strait of Hormuz as a favour to Countries all over the World,” Trump posted on social media, saying 28 Iranian mine-dropping vessels had been sunk.
Separately, US Central Command said that two US Navy warships transited the Strait of Hormuz at the start of an operation to clear the strategic waterway of mines laid by Iran.
Also Read: Trump says US will have Strait of Hormuz ‘open fairly soon’
“Today, we began the process of establishing a new passage and we will share this safe pathway with the maritime industry soon to encourage the free flow of commerce,” said Centcom commander Admiral Brad Cooper.
Amid conflicting reports from the field, Iranian state TV said no US ships had crossed the strait, a crucial transit point for global energy supplies that Tehran has effectively blocked but Trump has vowed to reopen.
The waterway, which lies on Iran’s southern coast, was one of the main points on the agenda in Islamabad for the first direct U.S.-Iranian talks in more than a decade and the highest-level discussions since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
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