The OTT streaming service Tubi will be acquired by Fox Corporation, it was announced today.
Last month at the Beet.TV executive retreat, we interviewed Tubi CRO Mark Rotblat about the company. We have republished the interview and story with today’s news:
It may be a fundamentally different business model, but there is one thing advertiser-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) services have in common with their subscription (SVOD) siblings – the importance of the content catalog.
Still, that fact does not give Mark Rotblat sleepless nights.
The chief revenue officer of Tubi, a growing AVOD service, says his company is confident about its catalog.
“We work with the largest studios, pretty much all the main studios and networks out there – Lionsgate, MGM, Paramount, et cetera. A&E, AMC – and so we work with over. I think. now 250 content providers,” he tells Beet.TV in this video interview.
“We are just getting more better content month over month. We’re (at) over 20,000 titles. And, while there’s a lot in the market about the Friends and the Seinfelds and those things being locked up for hundreds of millions of dollars, that’s not our focus or our concern because there still is something like over 700,000 titles out there in the market, and we want to provide access to that.
“The studios want services like Tubi to provide access to that and to make money from that.”
Something seems to be working. Rotblat shared December Tubi stats:
- 25 million monthly active users (up from 20 million in June).
- 163 million hours viewed in the month (160% year-on-year).
Here is the company’s press release on growth disclosed today.
A free app for a service that doesn’t require subscriptions, Tubi sells adds through both programmatic partner channels and direct to agencies and marketers.
Tubi pulled out of Europe, citing GDPR non-compliance, but plans to relaunch, including growing its 229-employee headcount overseas.
Rotblat was interviewed by TV[R]EV co-founder Alan Wolk at Beet Retreat San Juan 2020, where he was a participant.
This video was produced at the Beet Retreat San Juan 2020 sponsored by 605, DISH Media, NBCU, Roundel & Tubi. For more videos from the series, please visit this landing page.
