Fox-owned free ad-supported streaming TV (or FAST for short) service, Tubi, reached 64 million monthly active users, the company has announced. Previously, the company reported its subscriber base of 51 million in May 2022, so that’s significant growth. Moreover, that’s up from the 25 million monthly active users Tube had in 2020 when it was acquired by Fox.
Another detail from the company’s announcement worth sharing includes the growth in total viewing time, which surpassed 5 billion hours streamed in 2022. That’s a 44% increase year over year.
And that, apparently, is just a start with more growth coming to Tubi now that it has struck a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, gaining more than 2,000 hours of WB-branded content.
Overall, Tubi offers over 50,000 titles and more than 200 live TV channels to its users for free, making it the largest free streaming service out there.
Fox shared Tubi numbers as part of its annual research report, “The Stream: 2023 Actionable Insights for Brands,” showing an increased interest in more affordable, ad-supported plans. According to that report, one in three U.S. consumers will stream AVOD (ad-supported video-on-demand) by 2024. This probably has something to do with subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services raising their prices. Also, some of them, like Netflix and Disney+, decided to launch cheaper, ad-supported plans.
Back to AVOD, for which Fox predicts an increase of 9% in 2023 and 24% between 2022 and 2026 in total. Meanwhile, SVOD growth will remain “relatively flat,” according to them.
“As subscription costs continue to rise, nearly one in three streamers plan to reduce spending on streaming services this year,” Mark Rotblat, chief revenue officer at Tubi, said in a statement.
The report also added that, within the past year, Tubi content was watched by one in five AVOD subscribers.
With so many choices out there, it makes perfect sense for AVOD services continued growth. Simply put, you must pay almost $100 monthly to subscribe to all streaming services. Ad-based services offer a free or a more affordable alternative that will undoubtedly entice some users, including those that have yet to cut their cables or dump their satellite dishes.
And while 45% of respondents said that they value streaming services with fewer ads, it is inevitable that some of them will put up with ads in order to pay less. Or get access to the service completely free of charge.
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