Tubi: The Streaming Underdog That Fox Bet On and Why It’s Not Dead Yet

In the Darwinian bloodsport of streaming, where only the fittest, richest, and most IP-bloated survive, Tubi is the scrappy stray dog that wandered into the colosseum, ate everyone’s lunch, and refuses to be put down. No one saw it coming. Not Netflix, not Disney+, not even the ad-tech overlords who once dismissed ad-supported video as the digital equivalent of a gas station bathroom.

But here we are. Tubi, the free, ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) service that started life as a little-known company called AdRise, has grown into an 80-million-user behemoth. It’s the streaming equivalent of a flea market where, against all odds, people keep finding treasures amid the knockoff handbags. And now, with Fox Corporation at the helm, Tubi is sitting comfortably in the increasingly lucrative world of free, frictionless streaming.

So, how did this misfit become a major player while better-funded competitors burned billions chasing an audience that clearly doesn’t want to pay for a dozen streaming subscriptions? Let’s take a long, snarky look at how Tubi went from ignored to indispensable—and the issues it still faces as it navigates the streaming Thunderdome.