‘Paradox of choice’: Tubi CEO explains how the free streaming service is making entertainment easy and fun again

Running in the FAST lane

Features By Amelia Schwanke published 30 September 2024

When you think of free streaming, you might associate it with YouTube or homemade social media videos – not the likes of Netflix or Apple TV Plus, where you find big blockbuster movies and major series. But a growing number of services are offering the best of both worlds.

The best free streaming services are becoming viable alternatives to the leading subscription-based offerings, and while there’s still a long way to go before these services can replace the big names, there’s one service that has the backing of a major Hollywood studio that is quickly becoming a standout.

Tubi has one of the biggest catalogs of free-to-stream movies and shows, and it's caught the attention of a lot of people. The ads-based service has double the monthly active users of Netflix’s equivalent subscription tier that launched in late 2022, increasing to 80 million in 2024.

If those numbers sound surprising to you, then come down this rabbit hole (did you happen to catch Tubi's viral Super Bowl ad in 2023?) with me as I speak to Anjali Sud, who moved from Vimeo to become the CEO of Tubi in September 2023, to find out how the free streamer is managing to compete against the best streaming services.

‘Watch what you want’

Tubi is available in the US, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Latin America and, as of July, the UK, too. The streaming subscription alternative launched with 20,000 free movies and episodes in the UK (4,500 films alone), and while that’s a fraction of its reported 250,000-strong library in the US, Sud is confident that the service will scale quickly in the new market.

“We’re the most-watched free movie and TV streaming service in the US,“ Sud tells me. “We’re the number one AVOD [advertising video on demand] in Canada. We’ve just tied with Disney Plus in the US on viewership [based on Nielsen data], so that means we're surpassing Peacock and Max – big streamers that have been in the market a long time.“

A big part of what makes Tubi so successful – aside from its biggest selling point, which is that it’s entirely free – is that it has such a robust library. Described as a ‘free Netflix rival’, you won’t just find small budget productions but a variety of movies and shows, including an increasing number of critically acclaimed films like these three movies with over 85% on Rotten Tomatoes.

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