Tubi content chief says AVOD to trump SVOD and FAST

MIPCOM delegates gained an insight into the thinking of Tubi chief content officer Adam Lewinson at a keynote session yesterday. Speaking in the Palais de Festival’s Grand Auditorium, the head of Fox Entertainment’s fast-growing AVOD platform said the rise of SVODs is something of an anomaly.

“Television predominantly has always been a free, ad-supported model. In the past few years, the perception has been that the future of television would be behind a paywall. But ultimately, historical trends hold. My belief is that the future of television is free, ad-supported and VOD.”

Tubi now has 56 million monthly active users and streamed 3.6 billion hours of content last year. Lewinson suggested that the upward trajectory would continue as consumers start to churn out of SVOD. “Subscription fatigue is real. In the US, we’re at the inflection point where AVOD viewership is surpassing SVOD viewership.”

Adam Levinson

On content, Lewinson said the platform now has 500 content partners. It is also placing renewed emphasis on originals. “At a time when many are pulling back on original spend, we’re doubling down, so over 100 originals are coming soon.” Echoing Pluto TV’s new investment in Mondo TV shows, he said kids content plays a key role via Tubi Kids. “Every month we have thousands of kids’ titles and tremendous engagement. It’s a very important category that we will continue to lean into.”

Lewinson made one intriguing observation – when he tipped AVOD as a more significant opportunity than FAST Channels: “Younger demos who grew up on Netflix and YouTube are less likely to engage in FAST channels. Our view of the future is on-demand, but we’ve launched FAST channels for a subset of viewers.”