In the latest bridge between the creator economy and traditional media, Fox-owned streaming service Tubi has teamed with TikTok to help the latter’s talent pool develop long-form series.
The companies have launched an incubator to help TikTok creators develop original shows to premiere exclusively on Tubi. The programming will span many genres across scripted and unscripted. The companies say creators will lead the creative direction of the projects and receive support from Tubi.
TikTik will help identify creators who will be considered for the program, with an announcement of initial participants expected by this summer.
The initiative brings together two high-profile digital players. Tubi, which was acquired by Fox in 2020, has become one of the leading free streaming outlets, with more than 100 million monthly active users. TikTok’s explosive initial growth in the U.S. has leveled off somewhat but it still has 200 million-plus monthly users here and several times that in other parts of the world.
After years of political and legal wrangling over TikTok being controlled by a Chinese company, a deal was finalized in January to transfer control of its U.S. operations to a new joint venture. The new group of investors includes U.S. stakeholders like Oracle and Michael Dell, though China-based ByteDance retains 19.9% of the entity.
Tubi and its corporate siblings at Fox have been making aggressive moves in the creator space. In the last 10 months, Tubi has added more than 16,000 episodes from more than 200 creators to its platform. At CES in January, Fox’s ad sales group touted its new Creators@Fox initiative to a roomful of media buyers.
Rich Bloom, General Manager of Creator Programs and Executive Vice President of Business Development at Tubi, participated in the CES event. In a statement about the TikTok partnership, he said Tubi is “doubling down on giving creators a real bridge from digital platforms to premium long-form storytelling.”
Dawn Yang, Global Head of Entertainment Partnerships at TikTok, said the team-up “will give the next generation of entertainers more opportunities to expand their audiences, tell bigger stories, and turn their creativity into lasting impact.”