Tubi is adding 80 live local 24 hour news feeds from station groups Cox Media Group, Hearst Television, Scripps and TEGNA to its “News on Tubi” collection in the U.S. When combined with the 17 FOX TV station feeds and Altice USA’s News 12 New York, Tubi will have nearly 100 local news feeds across 58 Designated Market Areas and 24 of the top 25 DMAs when fully rolled out during 2021. Tubi believes this is the most comprehensive local news reach for any AVOD service.

Tubi’s CEO Farhad Massoudi said “Since News on Tubi launched in October, Tubi viewers have instantly taken hold of its value as a destination for a variety of free news choices…” While there are lots of free sources of news video online and on mobile, accessing live local news on TV has traditionally meant either having an antenna to pick up local signals or subscribing to a pay-TV package that included them.

However, Tubi’s audience skews young and it noted a couple of weeks ago that 48% of its 33 million monthly active users don’t have pay-TV. Most likely don’t have antennas either, as Tubi said 64% of its viewers can’t be reached by its sister company the FOX broadcast network. Tubi also said 84% of its viewers watch Tubi on a connected TV.

Put it all together and the majority of Tubi’s users likely don’t have access to live local news feeds on their TVs, creating an opportunity for Tubi. News on Tubi also includes a variety digital news sources like Bloomberg Quicktake, NBC News NOW, PeopleTV, WeatherNation, Cheddar and others.

On last week’s earnings call, Fox Corp. Executive Chairman and CEO Lachlan Murdoch said that in the first half of this fiscal year (July-Dec 2020), Tubi’s unique viewers more than tripled, total view time increased by almost 70% and revenue more than doubled, with Tubi’s revenue for the latest quarter about equal to its entire year of revenue prior to the acquisition. Murdoch forecast Tubi will have revenue of $300 million this fiscal year and envisions it becoming a $1 billion business for Fox in a few years.