How Tubi’s U.K. expansion reflects the next phase of AVOD’s global growth

A year after launching in the U.K., Tubi is finding traction, not just with viewers but increasingly with advertisers. Its approach offers some perspective on how AVOD (advertising-based video on demand) platforms can scale internationally while adapting to local tastes and market expectations.

Tubi’s bet on “weird, wonderful and colorful” content appears to be paying off in the U.K. Returning viewers and viewing hours are rising since launch a year ago, says Ross Appleton, Tubi’s U.K. general manager. Though he didn’t share specific figures, the Fox-owned ad-supported streaming platform recently announced it had doubled its content library to over 40,000 movies and TV episodes.

But content scale alone isn’t the endgame. The bigger challenge for AVOD platforms like Tubi is translating that viewer into a compelling value proposition for advertisers in a highly competitive streaming market like the U.K., albeit one with a growing appetite for AVOD.

“AVOD platforms are a considerable and growing share of viewing in the UK [and] a response to the accelerated fragmentation of audience and consumer demand for free, premium, ad-supported content amidst economic uncertainty and subscription fatigue,” says Tim Cady, managing partner at PMX Lift, part of Publicis Groupe.

Niche fandoms

“We launched … with not really much knowledge of what would resonate with U.K. audiences. We had a good idea, but now we’ve got real data and real insights into what’s working,” Appleton says.

That data-driven approach underpins how Tubi is tailoring its platform — not just to viewer preferences, but also to media buyers.

As Appleton tells it, 90% of Tubi’s catalog isn’t available elsewhere in the U.K. on other streaming services. This has enabled it to carve out niche fandoms underserved by other mainstream platforms.

The streamer is also adapting to the local market. While Tubi isn’t commissioning originals specifically for the U.K. “at the moment,” Appleton points to Please Don’t Feed the Children, a movie acquired, branded as an original and released by Tubi U.S. last year that went live simultaneously in the U.K.

“It’s something that we know, based on the first year, that our viewers will like, because it sits in a genre that does well for us,” Appleton says.

Over the last few months, Tubi struck deals with NBCUniversal, AMC and Sony to bring some of their content to the U.K. But what about deals with local TV players (like what Netflix did by announcing it would start carry leading French broadcaster TF1’s content next year)?

“The short answer is yes. We’re in conversations with a couple of really interesting potential content partners in the U.K.,” Appleton says. “We’re going to do content partnerships that are specifically leaning towards the U.K.”

Doubling down on attracting advertisers

Another desirable point for audiences may be Tubi’s light-touch approach to ads, even as some streamers like Prime Video increase ad loads.

“We have between four and six minutes per hour, which is lower than most others out there,” Appleton says. “We only serve a single pre-roll. From a viewer’s perspective, that’s preferential, and also from an advertiser’s perspective [...] They’re not cluttered with too many other adverts around the same ad spots.”

And now that the content is uploaded and the viewers are hooked, the streamer is doubling down on attracting advertisers.

Improving measurement is central to Tubi’s strategy to attract advertisers. The company is in “quite a few different conversations [with partners],” Appleton says, suggesting this will be a big focus in the coming year, explaining Tubi initially focused on “plugging in all the pipes” to make sure “the inventory is accessible in the way that people like to buy it — programmatically.”

Tubi already sends “quite a lot of data,” Appleton adds, like genre IP. This is “more than some others would typically send. This allows a lot of the SSPs and DSPs to target effectively across our viewer base.”

And as the likes of Netflix and Prime Video bring innovative ad formats like pause and shoppable ads to the U.K., so could Tubi, after already announcing similar offerings earlier this year.

“The next step for us is to start branching out into some of those more innovative formats.”