Tubi Plants a Toronto Flag for AI-First AVOD Scale
Tubi has opened its first Canadian office in downtown Toronto, a 10,000-square-foot workspace currently housing 21 employees with capacity for up to 50. The company cites 30% year-over-year growth in Canadian monthly active users since 2020 and says the Toronto hub will support product, data, and engineering roles aligned with an AI-first strategy. Tubi also highlighted its ad-supported positioning in Canada and noted leadership for the office under SVP of Engineering Derek Watson, with remarks at the opening from Chief Product and Technology Officer Mike Bidgoli.
Key Takeaways
- Tubi opened its first Canadian office in Toronto (10,000 sq. ft.; 21 staff now; capacity ~50).
- The company cites 30% year-over-year growth in Canadian monthly active users since 2020.
- Toronto roles will focus on product, data, and engineering to support an AI-first strategy.
- Derek Watson (SVP Engineering) will lead the Toronto hub; Mike Bidgoli spoke at the opening.
- Tubi is reinforcing its ad-supported positioning in Canada; Fox acquired Tubi in 2020 for ~$440M.
Why It Matters
This is a pragmatic signal: the next phase of “AI in streaming” isn’t just shiny UX—it’s staffing up data/engineering close to market to tune personalization and, crucially for AVOD, ad yield. Canada is becoming a real testbed for free streaming economics, and Tubi’s local footprint suggests the company wants faster iteration cycles across recommendations, content packaging, and ad-tech optimization. The emerging meme: AVOD winners won’t just buy content—they’ll build regional AI pods that squeeze more watch-time and CPM out of the same library.
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