Tubi CEO Anjali Sud says there’s a purpose why the FAST (Free Advert-Supported TV) channel enterprise is booming.
“Folks need nice storytelling, however they don’t wish to pay, as a result of they’re in any other case being entertained by TikTok,” Sud informed the Banff World Media Pageant on Monday throughout a keynote tackle. Sud in Sept. 2023 took the helm at Fox’s free, ad-supported streamer after taking on from Tubi founder Farhad Massoudi.
Throughout her reign, Tubi has loved a progress spurt. Tubi in January 2025 reported it had surpassed 97 million month-to-month energetic customers. That’s a soar from greater than 78 million MAUs posted in mid-2024. The streaming platform, which launched in 2014, additionally stated it streamed over 10 billion streaming hours within the 2024 calendar 12 months.
On the originals entrance, Sud was clear she and different Tubi programmers aren’t overly obsessed about being style makers. That’s the job of audiences. “We’re fairly versatile when it comes to what’s going to be good. We don’t begin with a philosophical viewpoint. We take heed to what audiences need and provides them extra of that,” Sub informed the Banff competition.
The Tubi chief can also be bullish about synthetic intelligence, initially by permitting shoppers to extra simply uncover content material to view and be engaged by. Trying to the longer term, Sud added AI can ultimately scale back the price of storytelling. “The largest potential is to speed up creativity by making it simpler, sooner and cheaper to generate (content material), if utilized effectively,” Sud stated.
She additionally touted YouTube as a giant challenger to Netflix within the streaming house. “The rationale they (YouTube) are an vital mannequin to have a look at is their price to supply is zero, and so they have a flywheel and the size to simply go sooner and sooner,” Sud stated.
Sud stated Tubi, with its “disrupter mentality,” as in streaming Tremendous Bowl LIX (“That was dangerous for us”), had ambitions to additionally draw indie filmmakers who’ve self-funded tasks and will look to Tubi to get their content material on TV.
“We can increase the bar on high quality, whereas enabling extra folks to take part,” she added about working with digital-native creators. Right here Tubi lately launched “Stubios,” a program for creatives, or “Stubiorunners,” who will need extra inventive management, whereas utilizing her platform get to Hollywood and ad-supported TV.
Sud stated the brand new program wasn’t about inserting user-generated content material on Tubi, as does YouTube. As a substitute, Tubi will look to content material creators who have already got a giant viewers on-line and get them into the TV house.
“That is an space that hasn’t been cracked, which is how do you assist long-tail creators who’re both already making lengthy type content material and the way do you assist them,” Sud argued.