Fox Wants To Buy Free-Streaming Service Tubi

Tubi, or not Tubi – that is the question. Fox Corp. – not to be confused with 20th Century Fox, which was sold to Disney and no longer really exists – is hoping to buy Tubi. What's Tubi, you ask? Why, it's a free streaming service with a funny name, of course. The streaming service offers free movies and TV shows with ads, and Fox is looking to purchase it for over $500 million.

Fox Corp., which deals with television broadcasts, news, and sports broadcasting industries that were not acquired by Disney, wants in on that red hot streaming action, so they're hoping to buy Tubi, according to Variety. Per their story:

With Tubi, Rupert Murdoch's TV broadcasting and cable company would be adding a dedicated streaming component — offering over 20,000 older TV shows and movies to watch for free — to its portfolio to capture the surge in internet-video viewing.

Tubi may not exactly be a household name, but it is free, and that's the type of detail that catches people's attention. The company reports that last year, its monthly active user base "grew to 25 million (up from 20 million six months earlier) while total viewing time hit over 163 million hours watched, a 160% year-over-year increase." Tubi was founded in 2014. By 2019, it had over 20 million active monthly users. They offer video content from studios like Paramount, Lionsgate, MGM and more, and Fox Corp. likely wants that kind of library for themselves. But will they keep the name? Or will they change it to avoid confusion with another oddly-named service, Quibi? Let's all wait and see!

These days, everyone wants their own streaming service. And while some, like Disney+ and Apple TV+, are willing to build from the ground up, others are turning toward already existing platforms to get the job done. Viacom bought the free streaming service Pluto TV for $340 million, and Amazon launched the free-to-stream IMDb TV, which was formerly called Freedive. Vudu, a streaming platform owned by Walmart, is in negotiations with NBCUniversal. NBCU is launching its own streaming service, Peacock, which will have a free ad-supported component.