Fox’s Tubi Enters UK Streaming Market; Paramount Hunts for Streaming Partner; TikTok Developing AI Chatbot Genie

by Aimee Newell Tarín on 3rd Jul 2024 in News

On today’s news digest: Fox’s Tubi Enters UK Streaming Market; Paramount Hunts for Streaming Partner; TikTok Developing AI Chatbot Genie

Tubi, the free ad-supported streaming service launched in 2014 and acquired by Fox in 2020, is arriving to the UK streaming market. This marks the start of its expansion into Europe, moving beyond its current offering in the US, Canada, Australia, and a number of Latin American countries. The platform will be launching on all major CTV platforms as well as mobile app and via web browser with a catalogue of over 20,000 films and TV episodes. The platform aims to offer viewers new areas of discovery, such as Bollywood and Arthouse cinema.

Meanwhile, Paramount Global is on the hunt for a new streaming partner for its Paramount+ service. It has been holding talks with other streaming platforms in the hopes of merging its service with another platform. Although discussions fizzled out earlier this year for a deal between Paramount Global and Warner Bros Discovery, it appears a deal could be on the horizon for Paramount+, to merge with Warner Bros Discovery’s Max as a joint venture. With the streaming landscape already in a fiercely competitive state, a partnership of this scale would be quite transformative for the market. Paramount has also expressed interest in potentially partnering with a tech platform to drive more minutes and grow greater profits.

In the AI arena, TikTok appears to be developing an AI chatbot named Genie: the video giant filed to trademark the name for an AI chatbot software. According to the information detailed in the US Patent and Trademark Office filing, TikTok intends to create “computer chatbot software for simulating conversations”, and for “facilitating interaction and communication between humans and AI”.