On Tuesday, Tubi announced the Creatorverse Incubator—a program where they’re funding 10 original series developed by TikTok creators.
If you’ve never been exposed to their catchy but somewhat grating jingle, Tubi is a completely free TV streaming service, powered entirely by commercials that give you just enough time to run to the bathroom in the middle of your favorite show, like the good ole’ days.
In that way, Tubi is not unlike old school cable TV. It provides a menu of content like traditional streaming, but the completely free aspect is not unlike YouTube…
Given Tubi’s storied past funding creator projects and syndicating YouTube VODs, this partnership doesn’t necessarily come as a shock.
Tubi’s VP of Creator Partnerships Kudzi Chikumbu told Variety his three criteria used to choose which TikTok creators to invest in:
“The creators we’re working with have built a following, a point of view and a body of work that people come back for,” Chikumbu said.
For creators, the path from feed to television has clear application criteria:
A following. When a streaming service invests in a creator, one of the creator’s primary assets is their audience. While audience size is a contributing factor, demographics and engagement often matter far more.
A point of view. Traditional TV pays writers to develop new ideas. Now, they pay creators. Tubi’s TikTok creators will be producing original series exclusive to Tubi, giving viewers a reason to watch on TV instead of scrolling their phones.
A body of work. Tubi’s creators span a variety of niches across genres like comedy, horror, and animation. What matters more than one specific genre is a body of work that demonstrates creator consistency and reliability in their preferred genre.
Today, Tubi receives just 2% of streaming views, surpassing Peacock and Warner Bros., but significantly behind Netflix, Disney+, and Prime Video who receive a combined 16.7% of all watch time.
This move borrows a page out of big streaming’s playbook: engaging creators to increase views and draw a new demographic to the app.
Whether 10 TikTok-born series can move that 2% is the experiment to watch.
