With the streaming wars continuing to heat up on an annual basis as more and more contenders enter the fray, it was always a matter of time before the costs became borderline unmanageable, and it feels as though we’ve reached that moment after several of the heaviest hitters went on wide-ranging content purges.
Whether it’s Netflix canceling dozens upon dozens of episodic originals each and every year, Disney wiping upwards of 50 film and television titles from the face of the content libraries across both its in-house platform and Hulu, or the recently-rebranded HBO Max shaving billions off the budget, there aren’t many on-demand exclusives past, present, or future that can be designated as 100 percent safe.
It’s caused much consternation and fury among subscribers and creatives alike, but one of the very few beneficiaries has been Tubi. The ad-supported service ended up securing the streaming rights to the likes of Westworld, The Nevers, Raised by Wolves and many more, with VP of Content Acquisition and Partnerships Samuel Harowitz admitting at the ATX Television Festival (via SlashFilm) that the deal has been a fruitful one.
“We premiered the back six episodes of The Nevers, that never aired anywhere else. I think that’s a testament to our partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery, we’ve got to give them a big shout-out for being innovative and [thinking] outside of the box. I can’t comment on the strategy behind pulling it down, necessarily, from their service. But I think that for us at Tubi, and generally for the television-viewing public, it was a win. It took shows that were only available on cable, previously, and brought it to anyone and everyone who wanted to tune in and watch on an ad-supported streaming service.”
Cancellation campaigns and petitions continue to fall on deaf ears, but at least there’s always something like Tubi hiding in the shadows ready to step in, even if it’s a small mercy when the projects in question won’t be getting any more new episodes.