Newly acquired Tubi offers ‘Masked Singer’ from parent Fox

The Masked Singer

Tubi is to offer episodes from the US version of unscripted hit The Masked Singer, just days after Fox Corp formally closed its $440m acquisition of the AVOD operator.

The first two seasons of the singing series, which airs on Fox in the US, have become available via Tubi and episodes from the latest season will also migrate to the streamer a week after their TV broadcast. The show is available at present on Hulu a day after their Fox debut.

Adam Lewinson, Tubi’s chief content officer, said the deal would be “the first of many new initiatives we’ll pursue with Fox.”

Rob Wade, president of alternative and specials at Fox Entertainment, added: “The Masked Singer is an important piece of our growing stable of owned-IP and this deal is a prime example of our strategy to identify meaningful opportunities for, and build the value of, our content.”

The arrangement marks the latest vertical integration of Fox assets and is another salvo in the ongoing battle for online viewers via AVOD, which has seen ViacomCBS buy Pluto and just this week, NBCU acquire Walmart’s Vudu.

The ‘new Fox’, headed up by Lachlan Murdoch and born out of Disney’s $71bn acquisition of 20th Century Fox, financed the deal to acquire Tubi with proceeds from the sale of its stake in fellow streamer Roku.

When the Tubi deal was first announced in March, Fox said it “underscores our long-term strategic initiatives to broaden and enhance [its] direct-to-consumer digital reach and engagement.”

Tubi has more than 25 million users and is available in the US, Canada and Australia, with launches scheduled for the UK and Mexico. It is available on more than 25 digital platforms and features 20,000 titles and 56,000 hours of film and episodic television programming from over 250 content partners.