Winners and Losers: Tubi hits the UK as Netflix drops its cheap ad-free plan

It’s Sunday, meaning it’s once again time for us to pick our winner and loser from the past week.

Next week is set to be a busy one with Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event, however that hasn’t meant the last seven days have been without note.

Nothing teased sub-brand CMF’s Watch Pro 2 coming later this month and In the audio space, Cambridge Audio launched its Melomania P100 headphones boasting a ridiculous 100-hour battery life.

Meanwhile, the Apple Vision Pro officially opened for pre-orders in the UK, allowing Brits to buy the mixed-reality headset.

Keep reading to learn who we crowned our winner and loser this week.

Winner: Tubi 

Our winner this week is Tubi after the hugely successful streaming service announced its launch in the UK. 

The Fox-owned video platform stepped onto the UK streaming scene on Tuesday hoping to add to the 80 million-person userbase it has gathered in the US and Canada. That’s after just one year, making it the fastest-growing US streaming service on the Nielsen Gauge. 

Much of the hype around Tubi can be attributed to its huge library of free content. This is possible because the app operates on a fully ad-supported model, unlike competitors like Netflix and Amazon Prime who require monthly payments to access both ad-supported and ad-free content. 

Unfortunately, not every piece of content available on Tubi across the pond will be coming to the UK. Despite Tubi’s library of more than 250,000 movies and TV episodes and 250 live channels in the US, just 20,000 films and episodes will launch in the UK – likely due to licensing agreements. 

However, that’s still plenty of content to get stuck into at no cost, with distributors including Disney, Lionsgate, NBCUniversal and Sony Pictures Entertainment all onboard, along with a slew of Tubi Originals. 

You can find Tubi on iOS, Android, the web and all major connected TV platforms. 

Loser: Netflix 

Keeping with the streaming theme, Netflix is our loser this week as the company began the process of ditching its cheap, ad-free subscription tier in the UK and elsewhere. 

This isn’t the first we’d heard of Netflix’s intention to drop its Basic tier with the company announcing the plan back in January. However, now users are beginning to receive notification of their last day on the plan. 

The notification shared by one user on Reddit reads: 

“Your last day to watch Netflix is July 13. Choose a new plan to keep watching. Your Basic plan has been discontinued, but you can easily switch to a new one. Plans start at just $5.99 with upgraded features”. 

What is especially alarming is that some users have reported being unable to stream for the last few weeks of their Basic plan unless they first select a new plan. This means committing to Basic With Ads, Standard or Premium before their current plan is over or risk being cut off from the service early. 

While the Basic With Ads plan is cheaper than the Basic plan being discontinued, it comes with the obvious caveat that you have to put up with ads. This means users will either need to accept an onslaught of ads or upgrade to continue streaming ad-free. 

The timing is especially interesting seeing as Tubi is launching this week. We’ll have to see whether the other Netflix plans will see an increase in users or if Tubi will win over those looking to save their money.