What’s the deal with Tubi?
If you’re a dedicated cinephile, Netflix is arguably one of the most pointless subscriptions to have, at least on the movie front, as it really doesn’t offer much diversity in terms of genre or time period.
Anyone with a subscription knows that there’s only so much scrolling you can do before you’re back at square one, the same big blockbusters appearing in multiple categories, most of which are no older than a few decades. You’re hardly going to fumble around the streaming service if you want to watch a silent era classic, an Italian neorealist film, a French New Wave comedy, or a ‘70s avant-garde masterpiece, so where else can you go?
More specialised subscription services like Mubi, the Criterion Channel, and BFI Player are all great options that cater towards those who want more than the latest Knives Out instalment or an action flick, but, of course, these platforms begin to add up, especially if you want to subscribe to more than one. While many of these more niche services are actually rather affordable, with the BFI Player coming in at £6.99 a month, while cult movie and horror lovers can get Arrow Video for £4.99 a month, they don’t offer the TV shows that make Netflix so popular.
But then there’s Tubi, first launched in 2014 before being purchased by Fox in 2020, which is completely free if you don’t mind watching adverts, making it incredibly accessible. When you load up Tubi, it can be quite hard to believe that this is a completely free and legal streaming service. You don’t even need an account to watch the thousands of movies and TV shows on offer.
You’d think that a free service might be predominantly filled with unwatchable rubbish, but Tubi is something different entirely. A quick browse on the website while writing this article has led me to find popular movies ranging from Donnie Darko and David Cronenberg’s Crash to Bring It On, The Love Witch, Adaptation, Audition, and 1922’s Nosferatu.
Now that’s a wide array of titles, all for free, so what’s the catch? How come so many well-known movies, both popular hits and cult classics, have made their way onto the platform without the need for a fee or a subscription? It all comes down to the advertisements scattered through their movies, which, admittedly, can be rather tiresome, but are they necessarily a dealbreaker?
Most viewers would’ve grown up watching movies and shows on TV with regular commercial breaks, anyway, and it’s not like the paying ones are rid of ads, either. The cheapest Netflix subscription comes with ads, while more expensive options, like Now TV and Amazon Prime, often interrupt the user experience with multiple commercial breaks.
Tubi does all of this, while also offering up obscure B-movies and old classics, like Marlene Dietrich’s The Blue Angel, 1937’s A Star Is Born, Carnival of Souls, and Citizen Kane. It’s especially great if you love ‘60s and ‘70s horror, particularly the lower-budget titles that can be hard to track down, with everything from The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue and Blood and Black Lace to Black Christmas, The Laughing Woman and Mark of the Devil all currently available.
Unfortunately, Tubi is lacking in the original content department, with all of the movies and TV shows made directly for the platform looking pretty abysmal. Lacking recognisable actors or directors, these projects look like they were made in a pinch for a free service, and few are worth your time, it seems. But with Tubi increasingly gaining popularity as it continues to cater to a wide audience with its mixture of blockbusters, B-movies, and old classics, perhaps the service will start to improve on its original front?
Still, even in its current state, the service is rivalling Netflix and Amazon Prime in its diverse selection of movies, and it’s all incredibly free. With over 100million monthly users across the globe, it seems like Tubi is only set to become a bigger presence in the streaming world, although it’s still got a way to go before it overtakes Netflix, which has long seemed unbeatable, despite its rising cost.
