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Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corp will launch a free streaming service in the UK to compete with Netflix and Disney in its first foray into Britain’s increasingly crowded market for ad-supported digital TV.
Fox will this week reveal plans to bring Tubi to the UK, a subscription-free but ad-funded platform that will have more than 20,000 movies and TV episodes at launch including Billy Elliot and Pacific Rim. It will launch in the coming weeks.
These will include shows from US entertainment giants such as Disney, NBCUniversal and Sony Pictures, as well as its original content and productions from large, overseas markets in India and Nigeria.
The move comes months after Murdoch’s existing TV service in the UK, TalkTV, which is owned by his News UK operations, closed its linear TV operations for a digital-only platform.
Fox Corp bought Tubi in a $440mn deal overseen by chief executive Lachlan Murdoch in 2020. It has become one of the fastest growing streamers in the US, offering viewers a video on-demand service without the need to register or subscribe.
The service is instead funded by advertising. Tubi has struck deals with the major connected TV suppliers to appear on their devices as well through mobile phones and the internet.
The move comes as rivals such as Netflix, Disney and Amazon have introduced advertising to their platforms, with paid subscriptions priced at a higher level for their ad-free services.
Rival services have been raising prices over the past year as they seek to turn growth into profits after a multiyear investment spree on content.
Tubi has gained in popularity as a result, taking the most total viewing time in the US according to data from Nielsen in May. Tubi has nearly 80mn monthly active users, and has been particularly popular with younger audiences.
Anjali Sud, chief executive of Tubi, said it was growing fast as rival streamers raised their prices but cut back on content spend. There would be “no tiers, no upsell, no registration to start watching”, she said. “Everyone should be able to watch great content.”
More than 60 per cent of Tubi’s users were people who have never subscribed to a pay-TV package or who were cord-cutters — customers who have stopped paying for subscriptions.
The service will offer local British content as well as shows for specific audiences interested in areas such as art house content and international TV from production houses in Bollywood and Nollywood — Indian and Nigerian shows, respectively. Tubi would provide a “more diverse experience” as a result, Sud said.
However, she acknowledged that Tubi was launching into a particularly competitive UK market, with viewers here not just served by a large selection of US streaming services but also through the free public sector broadcasters such as the BBC, ITV and Channel 4.
These broadcasters — alongside Channel 5 — launched a combined free TV streaming service called Freely last month, which allows viewers to switch between live and on-demand TV for their content.
“Its an intensely competitive space and more so over the past year,” she said. “[But] we are feeling pretty good.”
Fox’s other TV services have not been available in the UK, but Tubi — which is run as an independent service — could eventually carry its news and sports programming, said Sud.
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