Fox Buys Tubi for $440 Million After Selling Its Roku Stake
- Fox has decided to buy Tubi for $440 million.
- The move comes as the "war" between streaming platforms deepens.
- The money for the transaction comes from selling its stake in Roku.
Tubi, the ad-supported streaming platform, is being acquired by Fox Corporation for $440 million. In this way, Fox Corp gets control over 20,000 older TV shows and movies that Tubi has on its service, as well as some 25 million active monthly viewers.
It seems that Fox Corp has funded its acquisition of Tubi by selling its 5% stake in Roku. Nonetheless, it's going to benefit Fox quite a bit as it doesn't actually have a streaming platform of its own. As you may remember, Fox Corporation is separate from 21st Century Fox which was acquired by Disney back in 2019.
"Tubi will immediately expand our direct-to-consumer audience and capabilities and will provide our advertising partners with more opportunities to reach audiences at scale. Importantly, coupled with the combined power of FOX's existing networks, Tubi provides a substantial base from which we will drive long-term growth in the direct-to-consumer arena," said Lachlan Murdoch, Fox CEO,
According to the terms of the deal, now cable customers will be able to stream more entertainment on Fox websites. This will put Fox in a good position as it competes with the likes of Pluto TV, which is owned by ViacomCBS, Xumu, owned by Comcast, and Crackle, owned by Sony. With some 25 million unique viewers each month, Tubi stays at the top, however, with Pluto TV having about 22 million monthly users, and Xumo about 5.5 million.
A deal of this size needs to follow certain steps, and Fox hopes for the final agreement to be signed by the end of June 2020, following regulatory approvals and other details that need to be ironed out.
Tubi fans, don't worry! It seems that the platform will remain an independent service and it will maintain its leadership, with Farhad Massoudi, founder and CEO, staying at the head of the company.