As CEO of Tubi, Farhad Massoudi offers an alternative to the paid-subscription paradigm costing viewers an arm and a leg. His free streaming service, Tubi, has an immense library of content from various platforms, including Hulu, all with no subscription costs.
“The reality is that consumers are going to subscribe to a handful subscription services for their originals,” Massoudi explains in an interview. “And then they’re going to complement that with a FAST [Free Ad-supported Streaming Television] that gives them a massive amount of content for free.”
Tubi’s large library of content gives it an upper hand on its competitors
“We’ve definitely invested heavily in recommendations, content management solutions, ad serving technology, and many other pieces of our infrastructure,” Massoudi tells TV Revenue. He explains that the company’s recommendation system is very well-developed to deal with such a huge repository of content. They take a very different approach than services such as Netflix and Amazon, which focus on creating original content at the cost of their libraries.
“At Tubi, we’ve always been in the business of providing the largest library of free movies and TV shows to viewers,” explains Massoudi in an interview with The Wrap. “So our company is taking a different approach entirely, and we have no plans to produce our own content.”
Watch Four Lions starring Riz Ahmed on Tubi for free here.
Tubi stays free through limited ads, so that they can pay their partners who provide content, such as MGM and Paramount. Tubi is available in all of North America, Australia, and New Zealand. It includes over 20,000 titles. As of September 2020, the company reported 33 million monthly users and has expanded to many devices and has even launched a “Tubi Kids.”
Farhad Massoudi knows his way around Silicon Valley
Massoudi was born in the United States, but spent most of his childhood in Iran. After living in the states for a while, his parents decided to return to their native country. They were then prohibited from leaving after the revolution.
He arrived once more in the US at 19 years old. He first graduated from the University of California. Next up: Berkeley in 2005 with a degree in electrical engineering and computer science. From there, he decided to stay in California. He competed in Silicon Valley for a time, until Tubi picked up.
“[Originally] we were probably a little too early,” Massoudi tells Media Post “But we made our bet and we stuck with it.”
Farhad Massoudi partners with competitors, so that everyone wins
Although Tubi stands in competition with various other streaming services, they also do play ball with their competitors. For example, Tubi features some shows from Hulu in an attempt to “showcase their amazing shows and movies to a broader, engaged audience” for free, Massoudi explains in The Wrap.
They also recently launched a feature called Tubi channels. This feature streams content from various services and brands to allow people to explore with direction in their library. “Our partner relationships our absolutely critical for the success and growth of the company,” Massoudi says. “So anything that helps our content partners benefits Tubi and its viewers.”
Watch any of over 20,000 titles, including A Simple Wedding starring Tara Grammy and Shohreh Aghdashloo, here.
