Tubi, A Friend or Foe of Black Film?

During the streaming boom of 2020, we saw subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) and advertising-based video-on-demand (AVOD) platforms spring up, seemingly overnight. With Disney +, Hulu, HBO Max, and many of the largest studios in the country competing for idle COVID-19 eyes, independent distribution made a radical move. Many went from the traditional pre-sales model, removing the need for expensive agents and distribution companies, to tech-savvy FAST channel and  SVOD channels bringing in millions during the shutdown. Introducing new players in the movie business to anyone with a SMART TV and internet connection.

Amid this streaming boom, Tubi arrived on the scene on April 14, 2014, and emerged originally as an AVOD platform. Where filmmakers are paid from ad revenue generated from their show. It was later acquired by FOX in 2020 for $440 million and proved to be a major ad-supported network. With nearly 64 million monthly viewers, Tubi has provided a platform for many advertisers to reach households that, before COVID, were only accessible through the linear cable ad market. This adoption of streaming has placed Black independent filmmakers at the center of a streaming gold rush and birthed studio-supported “Tubi Originals,” like Cinnamon (2023) and The Assistant (2022) indie productions that feature well-known D-list talent, with low budgets, and high returns on investment. With all these new eyes on independent Black filmmakers, is Tubi’s platform becoming a friend or foe to  Black filmmakers?

Black cinema has evolved from the Blaxploitation, the action era of the 1970s to the 1990s romantic dramas we know and love. Black urban audiences flocked to theaters to watch gangster crime dramas like Shaft (1971), Foxy Brown(1974), Harlem Nights (1989), and SuperFly (1972) for fun. Hollywood started to turn their eyes to low-budget, blaxploitation-style films and grew a fanbase in urban film markets like Atlanta, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

Tubi stands to be a platform where Black cinema can find new eyes, many of whom are willing to watch ads between their favorite nostalgic films. They can explore new indie films that quench their thirst for diverse representation on screen and in storylines with the new Tubi slate.

Tubi’s 50,000-plus catalog of films and television shows provides the Black cinema category with a slew of independently produced urban crime dramas or female-led thrillers that continue to captivate Black audiences, showcase Black talent, and tell "Black" stories. 

This is an unprecedented time in Tubi's early streaming history as COVID-19 created a super-charged film environment. Producers and small indie studios have raked in millions from Tubi ads and built a following with their crafty producing savvy making entertaining films on a tight, low-end budget outside of the studio system. According to a recent study, data suggests the less you spend on the film’s production the greater your chances of breaking even. Which is a polar opposite producing philosophy compared to the one established by Hollywood producers of today.

A few swipes down the Tubi Black cinema catalog and you immediately notice the prevalence of gangster crime thrillers, female-driven badass films, and a dark void of diverse Black stories that show the full spectrum of "black" stories. Do filmmakers not believe that they have enough unique stories to share with this audience? Or is it that indie producers don’t believe that intimate family dramas or animated comedies bring enough eyes to their projects?

One of the challenges of producing outside of the studio system is pursuing “filmmaking for the market." Most independent producers and screenwriters, despite their lack of institutional knowledge, rely on their understanding both of the market and the creative value of a script. This can lead to creating replicated stories, lifting shots directly from other films for “inspiration,” and relying on what is “popular” in Black film versus what raises the creative bar for urban audiences to explore. 

With Tubi, users experience content from indie filmmakers in a way that they have not before, unlike Netflix’s more established narrative style. This leads to hashtags like #Tubimoviesbelike, where audiences poke fun at indie “urban” films that are just awful, but in a campier way.

As filmmakers make their films accessible throughout the world with AVOD, they stand to fall through the cracks at Tubi who lacks the quality control measures needed to highlight the best of Black cinema both in script and production quality with their aggregate first, distribution philosophy. They also stand to benefit from hate watchers, looking to have a good laugh. This is a radical shift in the way that films are green-lit and distributed. Instead, Tubi now empowers the filmmaker to distribute, market, and screen their work.

This might be a good or a bad thing for Tubi if you consider that indie films are not screened for things like costume malfunctions, lighting mishaps, copyright infringement, and talent documentation issues. In addition to the normal challenges of low-budget productions, indie directors and producers often distribute the film with continuity errors in the edit and uncleared music.  With a lack of marketing support, many of these indie filmmakers experience their first flop before they even get started in the studio system.

No matter the impact that an AVOD-supported stage like Tubi has, Black filmmakers are at a crossroads between fighting for a seat at the table OR building their table and taking their films directly to the audiences with these new platforms. 

Interested in supporting Black filmmakers, HERE is a list of additional black streaming services available now!