December 9, 2024
Fox Corp.’s ad-supported streaming service Tubi is set to generate $1 billion in current fiscal year revenue, up from $150 million in revenue four years ago when Fox acquired the FAST platform for $440 million.
Speaking Dec. 9 at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in New York City, Fox Corp. CFO Steven Tomsic said Tubi revenue benefitted from political advertising in the election year despite remaining relatively unknown to professional ad agencies and ad buyers. The platform generated 1.8% household TV market share in October, ahead of Peacock (1.3%), Max, Paramount+ (1.2%), and Pluto TV (0.8%), and par with Disney+ and The Roku Channel, according to Nielsen.
“In many respects, Tubi is a hidden gem,” Tomsic said.
The executive said the standalone launch of Fox, after splitting away from its 20th Century Fox Studios entertainment business, was underscored by a mindset not to enter the SVOD market.
“With Netflix coming through with unlimited capacity from a programming perspective, all the linear distributors had to defend their territory,” Tomsic said. “We haven’t spent billions of dollars in creating SVOD services, on the investment in customer acquisitions, investment in programming to develop services to compete with Netflix.”
On the flipside, the CFO contends the FAST service has generated 50% monthly active user penetration, which he contends helps drive more targeted advertising with ad agencies and clients, and put the Tubi front front-and-center in front of consumers.
At the same time, Tomsic said Tubi generated a pre-tax loss of around $240 million in the last fiscal year. As a result, the CFO said the goal is not only to see the platform break even, but generate positive margins as well.
“Even though we have been really successful driving monetization, we see enormous upside still left in Tubi,” he said. “We see Tubi an enormous growing asset.”
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