Fox forms Tubi Media Group, led by Paul Cheesbrough, as Farhad Massoudi departs

Kitchen Commando

Fox Corporation has formed the Tubi Media Group, a new division to house the company’s standalone digital businesses – including AVOD service Tubi, whose founder and CEO Farhad Massoudi is stepping down.

Headed up by newly appointed CEO Paul Cheesbrough, Tubi Media Group will also encompass fin-tech firm Credible and web3 company Blockchain Creative Labs, as well as the digital platforms and teams associated with Fox’s wider digital business in news, sports and entertainment.

Fox said that the new division will provide the “necessary strategy, leadership and focus” to takes its digital businesses “to the next level”.

The move comes three years after Fox acquired Tubi for $440m in 2020. Since then, the AVOD service has reportedly increased its value four-fold, with the company turning down multiple “unsolicited offers” of more than $2bn for the AVOD service.

Cheesbrough previously served as CTO and president of digital for Fox Corporation, where he oversaw the acquisition and management of Tubi. He will continue to be based in Los Angeles and report to Lachlan Murdoch, executive chair and CEO of Fox Corporation.

Tubi Media Group said it will announce the new CEO for Tubi Streaming in the near future while Massoudi will stay on through a transition period until the end of June.

The exec said that he is leaving Tubi “in the best shape it has ever been, and its future is very bright.”

“Our strategic acquisition of Tubi in 2020 established a cornerstone in our digital streaming strategy, which under Paul and Farhad’s leadership has driven record growth and is now the clear market leader in AVOD in the US,” added Lachlan Murdoch.

“Building off this momentum, and complementing the strong growth being driven in our company wide digital revenues, now is the right time to bring these efforts together into a new business unit which will be tasked with spearheading our digital expansion and partnering with our brands to drive continued growth.”

Tubi is available in the US, Canada, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand boasts more than 50,000 hours of film and episodic television programming.

The past couple of years have seen Tubi moving into original programming, with recent orders including cooking series Kitchen Commando, from Gordan Ramsay’s Studio Ramsay Global.

The AVOD also recently struck a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery to launch 14 WB-branded FAST channels covering more than 225 titles and over 2,000 hours of content, featuring content including Westworld, Raised by Wolves, Legendary and F-Boy Island.