News Corp bets big on Tubi, taking on Stan and 10 Play with full-scale streaming push

News Corp is making an aggressive play in the streaming market, throwing its full weight behind ad-supported platform Tubi in a bid to challenge Stan, SBS On Demand and 10 Play.

Tubi, owned by News Corp’s Fox, is a free, ad-supported alternative to subscription-based streaming players, with a viewership of 1.3 million across Australia.

Officially announced during D_Coded, News Corp’s annual event for marketers, Pippa Leary, managing director and publisher of free news & lifestyle, said the company is going “all in” bringing Tubi to Australian users. 

"We have very, very aggressive ambitions for this," Leary told Marketing-Interactive. "By the time we're finished with it, we will be chasing Stan."

Leary said Tubi’s ad-supported model is a key differentiator, especially as streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ "struggle" with integrating advertising after launching as subscription-only platforms.

"Tubi is made for this," she said. "It's built for advertising and making sure clients get great outcomes."

The end of ‘empty reach’

One of News Corp’s biggest advantages in driving Tubi’s growth is its first-party data asset, Intent Connect, which enables precise audience targeting - something Leary stressed other platforms struggle to deliver effectively.

"This is the first time we are really getting into the loungeroom," she said. 

"We’ve always had this fabulous first-party data asset in Intent Connect, where we recognise 17 million different Australians. But until now, we've only been able to use it on desktop and mobile inventory. Now we can bring that into big-screen streaming, where the sound is always on, the ad is unskippable and it’s full-screen."

Leary also took aim at vanity metrics, arguing that many publishers and streaming platforms still rely on "empty reach", inflating numbers with social media traffic that doesn’t lead to meaningful engagement.

"Reach by itself is a vanity and legacy metric from another era," she said. "You can gain reach by grabbing a whole lot of social traffic, but they're not actually engaged."

Instead, News Corp is focusing on "engaged reach" as a key metric, measuring how much time audiences spend with content and how deeply they interact with it.

"We have to stop doing stuff that chases reach, and we have to start creating content that creates deep engagement," Leary explained. "That’s where our clients get their outcomes."

Ads by humans, not bots

Tubi is also taking a different approach to ad placement, ensuring that ads are inserted at natural points in content, rather than being algorithmically placed in disruptive moments.

"A human sits through every single television show and every single movie and works out where is the best place to insert the ad that is the least disruptive," Leary said. 

"What a lot of people have said to me as they've been watching Amazon and Netflix is, ‘why is this ad break so random?’ And it's because it's done by machines, not by actual humans."

Leary revealed that News Corp’s entire media ecosystem will support the Tubi launch, similar to its launch strategy for Kayo.

"Now we get to throw the full weight of News Corp Australia behind Tubi," she said. The strategy aims to significantly boost Tubi’s Australian audience, many of whom "have discovered it by accident," Leary said.

Tubi’s audience is also skewing younger than traditional free-to-air platforms, with a core demographic under 35. Much of its content comes from cult classic TV and films from the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, as well as diverse international content, including Bollywood and Nollywood films.

"Tubi’s whole tagline is ‘find your own rabbit hole,’" Leary said. "Viewers are moving away from monoculture and are all about difference, diversity and finding what they like - not just what they’re being told is in fashion."

With a significant push from News Corp and a strong US growth trajectory, Tubi is hoping to position itself as a serious contender in Australia’s rapidly evolving streaming landscape.

David Salmon, Tubi International’s executive vice president and managing director, said the marketing was witnessing a “seismic shift” in where and how content is being consumed. 

“Tubi is at the forefront of this transformation, providing audiences with a premium entertainment experience that is 100 percent free. Our platform is purpose-built to help audiences find the content they love: we use sophisticated machine learning to deliver personalised experiences that make content discovery both surprising and delightful.”

Earlier this year Tubi announced it had surpassed 97 million monthly active users globally.