Diving into the stream
New service for savvy streamers
JUST when you thought there were enough streaming services to contend with, here’s another: American platform Tubi is now available in Australia but, unlike Disney+, Netflix or Stan, Tubi doesn’t want your money because it is free.
Tubi has 7000 titles in its library, but there is a catch. Actually, two catches.
The first is Tubi is ad-supported, which means you do pay in a sense by watching on average four minutes of ads per hour of streaming. The other catch is Tubi’s catalogue is primarily made up of B movies and TV shows you have never heard of.
There are titles such as Titanic II (no, it has nothing to do with James Cameron’s threehour epic), Paranormal Entity (yes, that says Entity, not Activity), Atlantic Rim (because why should the Pacific have all the fun?), Straight Outta Oakland and San Andreas Quake (this one does not star The Rock).
Eddie Murphy does not feature in Going to America (about a young man in LA claiming to be an African prince who becomes an overnight internet sensation) and Mandy the Haunted Doll may bear more than a passing resemblance to Annabelle.
Scrolling through its library and you’ll come across an occasional familiar face: Kevin Smith in Comic Book Men, Zendaya in Zapped, Zooey Deschanel in Tin Man and Chadwick Boseman in The Kill Hole.
There are also some classics that aren’t just the poor man’s version of something else, such as Sirens and Django.
Tubi is available across iOS and Android devices as well as on Chromecast, Apple TV, Telstra TV, Amazon Fire TV, PlayStation 4, Xbox and selected smart TVs.
Tubi won’t require registration, but you do need to register if you want personalised recommendations and your viewing queue to carry across devices.
As for the timing of its Australian launch, two months before the arrival of Disney+, Tubi chief executive Farhad Massoudi told news.com.au Tubi’s value proposition made it attractive for consumers in a crowded market.
“I think all the subscription companies are impressive but the idea that an average home is subscribing to Amazon, Disney+ and all these other services is ludicrous,” he said.
“Obviously being free is a huge part of our proposition.
“There’s a huge difference between charging a penny and charging nothing. There is no registration, you’re one click away from watching a movie.”
Mr Massoudi is also not worried about studios and distribution companies locking away their movies and TV shows for their own streaming services.
He said those studios were trying to lock down the “first window” – meaning those first months or years after a title’s release – for themselves, and “Tubi isn’t about the first window”. Australia is Tubi’s first market outside of North America after launching in the US five years ago.
“Australians are savvy streamers, they’re comfortable with it,” Mr Massoudi said.
“The distribution channels are prevalent, the internet connection is good, it’s culturally close to America, the advertising market is mature and obviously being English-speaking certainly helps. It made sense.”
Tubi is launching at a time of intensified activity in the streaming market with the imminent arrival of Disney+ and Apple TV+ adding to the already brimming choices in Australia, including Netflix, Stan, Foxtel Now, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube Premium, DocPlay, and Hayu.
Photo: iStock