Aaron O’Brien, Streaming Director, Tubi
The launch of Tubi’s partnership with News Australia was defined by two forces: a market hungry for change and a platform willing to challenge long-held assumptions about how Australians stream content.
The question wasn’t simply whether a vast, genre-fluid library would resonate locally.
It was whether an unapologetically different AVOD model, one that had already scaled to become the world’s largest collection of Hollywood movies and TV shows, could carve out substantial territory in Australia, one of the world’s most competitive, subscription-heavy markets.
Solving Market Fatigue with the AVOD Model
When News Australia announced the exclusive partnership with Tubi in March, the platform was still establishing its footing in a landscape dominated by global SVOD giants and well-funded BVOD players.
But the early signals were unmistakable: agencies were fatigued by audience duplication and CPM inflation. The market was ready for disruption, and Tubi delivered exactly that.
Nine months on, Tubi has evolved from a disruptive entrant to a meaningful player, proving AVOD has a rightful place in Australia’s video ecosystem.
Globally, Tubi’s audience is fuelled by tentpole moments like streaming the 2025 Super Bowl free in the US and breakout hits like Sidelined: The QB and Me, Tubi’s most successful Original movie.
Understanding the Unique Australian Audience
Here in Australia, a more mature, financially comfortable cohort has gravitated to a library of classic crime, drama, horror, and action, a distinctly local divergence that underscores a truth the industry too often forgets: Australian viewing doesn’t always mirror global trends, and platforms that assume this risk missing out on real growth.
Tubi’s edge isn’t scale for scale’s sake, it is differentiation.
While others double down on familiar content, Tubi built a value proposition anchored in cultural niches, long-tail passion genres, and a frictionless free experience.
Programming captures conversation, not just attention. Tubi has already started to flex this muscle in Australia with upcoming originals like How to Lose a Popularity Contest, Kissing Is the Easy Part, and the vodcast Good Trouble with Nick Kyrgios.
Director, Fawzia Mirza, plus stars- Paris Berelc and Asher Angel of Tubi’s original ‘Kissing is the Easy Part’
Accelerating the Commercial Flywheel
Since February, viewing hours on Tubi have grown by 50%.* When audiences stay longer, return often, and build habits around a platform, the commercial flywheel accelerates.
For advertisers, this has translated into incremental reach at a moment when efficiency, diversification, and de-duplication have become non-negotiable.
If 2025 was the year of proving the model, 2026 becomes the year of embedding it in culture.
The platform has shifted from a speculative ‘what if?’ to a strategic ‘must-have.’ And for advertisers, the message is clear, in a duplicated market, divergence isn’t a gamble, it’s the growth strategy you can’t afford to overlook.
*Source: Tubi Internal Data CTV Viewer Hours Feb–Oct 2025.