Tubi Unveils Interactive Ad Formats, Expands Amazon DSP Deal, and Adds Sports‑Centric Originals for Gen Z

Tubi unveils new ad formats and partnerships

At the IAB NewFronts conference in New York on March 24, 2026, Tubi—Fox Corporation’s free ad‑supported streaming service—announced a suite of product upgrades, partnership expansions, and original‑content initiatives aimed at strengthening its appeal to advertisers targeting younger audiences. The event, titled “Tubitopia: An Advertiser’s Paradise” and hosted by comedian Tiffany Haddish, served as the platform for the company to outline how it plans to translate its growing user base into measurable outcomes for brands.

A snapshot of Tubi’s scale

Tubi reports more than 100 million monthly active users who collectively stream roughly one billion hours of content each month. The service positions itself as the second‑largest free AVOD platform in the United States, with a library that includes the world’s largest collection of movies and TV shows, alongside thousands of creator‑led stories and a growing slate of Tubi Originals. According to the company, 95 percent of its viewing occurs on demand, and 100 percent of its inventory is addressable inventory, giving advertisers the ability to target specific audiences with precision.

New interactive ad formats

The most visible change announced at NewFronts is a trio of interactive ad solutions designed to capture attention during the natural pause points of streaming.

  • Scene Sense – This format overlays an interactive panel when a viewer pauses a title, surfacing contextual information such as cast details, soundtrack credits, trivia, and related content. The technology leverages scene‑level signals—visual cues, tone, and sentiment—to match display ads with the exact moment a user has stopped watching. By aligning the ad creative with the content’s narrative, brands can deliver messages that feel more relevant and timely.
  • Interactive Pause Ads – Building on the existing pause‑ad experience, Tubi now supports richer interactions, including carousel layouts, trivia questions, and poll widgets. Advertisers can showcase multiple products or messages within a single pause window, encouraging viewers to engage while the primary video remains halted.
  • Connected Conversions – This product bridges the gap between television and mobile devices. After a viewer encounters an ad on a TV screen, they can receive follow‑up prompts—push notifications, email offers, or QR codes—on their smartphone or tablet, facilitating a cross‑device conversion path that extends the impact of the initial impression.

These formats aim to address a longstanding challenge for CTV advertisers: converting passive viewing into actionable engagement. By turning the pause button into a point of interaction, Tubi hopes to improve click‑through rates and, ultimately, drive sales or other conversion metrics.

Strategic partnership deepening with Amazon DSP

Tubi also disclosed an expanded relationship with Amazon’s demand‑side platform. While the two companies have collaborated previously, the new “Tubi Priority Access” package grants advertisers first‑look rights to a segment of Tubi’s audience that is unique to Amazon’s open‑internet streaming supply. According to Tubi, roughly 10 percent of its users are exclusive to this channel, offering incremental reach that cannot be sourced elsewhere.

The partnership leverages Amazon’s Authenticated Graph technology, which can identify up to 85 percent of Tubi inventory against an Amazon user profile. This level of authentication enables advertisers to target verified households with highly addressable messages, reducing waste and improving campaign efficiency.

Measurement partnerships with InMarket and Kochava

Beyond reach, Tubi highlighted its focus on outcome measurement through collaborations with InMarket and Kochava. InMarket’s platform provides direct attribution of sales performance for categories such as restaurant, retail, and consumer packaged goods, allowing brands to trace revenue back to specific Tubi ad exposures. Meanwhile, the expanded tie‑up with Kochava gives Tubi Studio advertisers access to ticket‑sale data from Fandango, linking ad impressions to actual box‑office results for film campaigns.

These measurement capabilities address a common pain point for advertisers on CTV: the difficulty of tying viewership data to offline or cross‑platform conversions. By integrating third‑party attribution sources, Tubi positions itself as a more data‑driven media option.

Sports‑culture programming for a younger audience

  • Altcast with Apple TV × Formula 1® – In a first‑of‑its‑kind collaboration, Tubi will deliver exclusive live “altcasts” of select Formula 1 races on Apple TV. These alternate broadcasts will feature creators who specialize in motorsport analysis and entertainment, aiming to make the sport more accessible to digitally native viewers. The races slated for altcast coverage will be disclosed later in the year.
  • Deestroying – The platform will launch an original series starring the e‑sports personality Deestroying. The show blends competitive challenges with creator‑driven storytelling, reflecting the crossover between athletic performance and influencer culture.
  • Jesser’s Ultimate Kickoff – Featuring popular YouTube creator Jesser, this series pits the host and friends against a series of unconventional soccer challenges, ranging from precision shooting to obstacle‑course style defenses.

These additions reinforce Tubi’s strategy of leveraging creator influence to attract younger viewers who gravitate toward hybrid entertainment that mixes sports, gaming, and social media personalities.

Upcoming Gen Z‑focused Tubi Originals

  • GAME ON – The drama follows a high‑school gamer named Casey as she infiltrates an esports tournament to outplay her online rival, who also happens to be her crush. The series will star Sky Katz and Case Walker, with voice work from veteran actor Nolan North.
  • REMEMBER ME – A YA supernatural thriller in which the protagonist, Shari Cooper, must solve her own murder from beyond the grave before a malevolent entity catches her. The project features Brec Bassinger and Charlie Gillespie in lead roles.

Both titles aim to broaden Tubi’s scripted‑content library with stories that resonate with younger demographics, complementing the platform’s sports‑culture slate.

Performance metrics and recent successes

Tubi’s recent content performance underscores its growing relevance. The “SIDELINED” franchise has surpassed 20 million viewers, while titles such as How to Lose a Popularity Contest, Kissing is the Easy Part, and sports‑focused series like Destination World Cup 2026 have posted strong premiere numbers. TikTok creator Kelon Campbell’s Terri Joe: Missionary in Miami continues to receive positive critical response, and upcoming releases—including Summer’s Last Resort (starring Sophia Bush) and Buzzkill (featuring Siena Agudong)—are expected to add to the platform’s draw.

According to Variety’s weekly top‑10 original‑stream list compiled by Luminate, 17 Tubi Original films have appeared in the past year, indicating that the service’s investment in proprietary content is beginning to yield measurable recognition.

Executive perspective

Anjali Sud, CEO of Tubi, framed the announcements as part of a broader effort to convert “fan passion” into advertiser performance. “The future of entertainment is built on fan passion. As the second largest Free AVOD platform and the growing home for Gen Z, Tubi is the only streamer built from the ground up to turn passion into performance for advertisers,” Sud said. She added that the combination of “massive scale, original and exclusive programming on the pulse of culture, and industry‑leading investments in ad tech, precision and measurement” equips brands to achieve “greater reach, relevance and efficiency at a time when they need it most.”

Industry context

The ad‑supported streaming market has become increasingly competitive, with players such as Pluto TV, Roku Channel, and Peacock vying for the same demographic. What distinguishes Tubi, according to the announced initiatives, is its focus on addressable inventory and cross‑device conversion pathways. The integration of Amazon’s Authenticated Graph aligns Tubi with a broader trend of leveraging first‑party data to overcome the limitations of cookie‑based targeting in a post‑privacy‑regulation environment.

Furthermore, the emphasis on measurement through InMarket and Kochava reflects a growing advertiser demand for end‑to‑end attribution that spans TV, digital, and offline channels. As brands allocate larger portions of their media budgets to CTV, the ability to demonstrate ROI with concrete sales data becomes a decisive factor in platform selection.

Competitive implications

If Tubi’s new formats and partnerships deliver the promised lift in engagement and conversion, the service could challenge the dominance of larger, subscription‑based streaming giants in the ad‑supported segment. The exclusive sports‑culture content, particularly the Formula 1 altcasts, may also attract advertisers seeking to associate with premium live‑event programming without the high costs of traditional broadcast rights.

Advertisers familiar with Amazon DSP will now have a more streamlined path to reach Tubi’s audience, potentially increasing the platform’s share of programmatic spend. Meanwhile, the cross‑device conversion tools could make Tubi a more attractive venue for performance‑driven campaigns, especially those targeting younger shoppers who frequently move between TV and mobile.

Outlook

Tubi’s roadmap suggests a continued push toward integrating ad technology, measurement, and culturally relevant content. The upcoming FIFA World Cup™ FOX Hub, a partnership with TikTok’s Creatorverse Incubator, and ongoing collaborations with Nielsen for audience measurement indicate that the company is positioning itself as a full‑stack solution for advertisers seeking both reach and accountability.

For marketers, the key takeaway is that Tubi is now offering a more granular set of tools to target, engage, and convert viewers, especially within the coveted Gen Z segment. Brands that can align their creative messaging with the interactive formats and leverage the new measurement data may find a more efficient path to measurable outcomes in the crowded CTV landscape.

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