Tubi will follow the lead of Pluto TV, Crackle, and The Roku Channel in moving into original content for its free streaming service. Steve Tomsic, Chief Financial Officer of Fox discussed the free service’s interest in developing originals during an investment conference this week.
Sources for Bloomberg confirmed that Tubi is having conversations with potential advertisers who would partner with the service for original movies, but added that Tubi has discussed spending as much as $4 million per episode for original series as well.
The news follows Roku’s announcement that it will exclusively premiere its first original series later this week. “Cypher” is a seven episode series that will be available on The Roku. Channel beginning March 19. The Roku Channel will also be the exclusive home of the shows and movies created for Quibi, including content that had not yet been released on the app before it shut down.
Pluto TV, a leader in free streaming, has also developed original titles including “Bajillion Dollar Propertie$” while another free service, Crackle, saw success with several original titles including “Going From Broke” which exceeded 11 million views between its season 1 launch in October 2019 and the beginning of 2020.