Latest in AVOD

The streaming field, already bursting with hundreds of competing services, has added one more: Plex. Following through on an announcement from last summer about a pact with Warner Bros., Plex officially lifted the veil on its ad-supported streaming offering, which is now live in 200 countries. Along with Warner film…

Roku, which has evolved beyond streaming boxes and dongles to become a force in streaming advertising, has acquired ad-tech firm Dataxu for $150 million in cash and stock. The deal is expected to close during the fourth quarter. Roku executives will detail their plans for integrating Dataxu’s demand-side buying and…

Roku issued research Wednesday that forecasts TV viewing via streaming will exceed pay-TV viewing by 2024, but the company’s stock dropped sharply after Facebook and Comcast made streaming news. The New Generation of Cord-Cutters, a study done for Roku by Macro Consulting that draws from both Roku-using and…

EXCLUSIVE: Pluto TV, the ad-supported live streaming offering owned by Viacom, has lined up its latest pop-up channel: Pluto TV 007, a 24/7 streaming network dedicated to James Bond. Timed to the ramp-up of interest in the super-spy ahead of No Time to Die, the 25th installment in the franchise due out on April 8, the…

Plex has signed a deal with Warner Bros Domestic Television Distribution that will help it expand into free, ad-supported streaming. Founded nearly 10 years ago, Plex began with the mission of trying to streamline the entertainment experience across multiple digital platforms. Its app features live and recorded…

YouTube is officially kicking off its shift to AVOD (ad-supported video on demand) today by dropping the first season of its most popular original scripted series Cobra Kai, starring Ralph Macchio and William Zabka, in front of the paywall for a limited time. The streamer also has set Season 2 premiere dates for…

Tubi TV, the top ad-supported, on-demand video service, will launch September 1 in Australia in the first leg of a planned global expansion. The initial offering will encompass 7,000 movie and TV titles, but will eventually grow to the catalog of 15,000 included in Tubi’s service in the U.S. and Canada. Ad-supported st…

Ad-supported streaming service Tubi said it has surpassed 20 million monthly active users after activity in May reached 94 million hours of content viewing and revenue in the month set a company record. Tubi, which launched in 2014, is privately held and did not disclose the monthly revenue figure. At the start of…

Sony Pictures Television is taking the Crackle assets that had been under strategic review and contributing them to a new joint venture with a smaller but fast-growing streaming player, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. The sale of Sony’s stake in Crackle will result in a new entity, dubbed Crackle Plus…

Cinedigm, which has been steadily transforming itself from a cinema equipment concern to a streaming specialist, is significantly expanding its digital reach by acquiring video platform company Future Today. In exchange for $45 million in cash and $15 million in common stock, Cinedigm will increase its OTT footprint…

Tubi and NBCUniversal have set a deal that will see a trove of nearly 400 vintage TV episodes and films land on the ad-supported Tubi streaming service. The titles covered by the deal will bring a nostalgic tear to many Gen-Xer eyes. The roster includes Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, The A-Te…

A week after Viacom surprised the industry by agreeing to pay $340 million for Pluto TV, rival Tubi has announced several measures of its dramatic growth in 2018 and plans for expansion in 2019. The independent company, which launched in 2014, bills itself as the world's largest ad-supported video on demand service…