With ad-supported streaming services drawing renewed attention ahead of an upcoming U.S. rollout, the free-tier segment of the market is shaping up as the next arena where platforms will compete for viewers. A deal giving Fox ownership of Roku has left both Tubi and Pluto TV navigating a more crowded streaming landscape.
Both Tubi, which operates under Fox, and Pluto TV, a Paramount property, have carved out distinct positions within the streaming landscape. Tubi moved into content production by establishing its own studio and rolling out a slate of original titles, while Pluto TV put together a Friday programming block pairing cult-favourite films with independent releases that have flown under the radar.
Rakuten TV — a Barcelona-headquartered platform under Japanese ownership — is preparing to roll out its free ad-supported streaming service beyond Europe, bringing a fresh entrant into a market already occupied by three established no-cost streaming providers. Plans for a Rakuten TV rollout in the U.S. before the year's end were outlined in coverage from an unnamed news outlet, and those plans now extend beyond U.S. borders, with the Middle East and Japan both listed among the intended markets.
Rakuten TV's chief executive, Cédric Dufour, laid out the strategy during MIPCOM, the international television industry gathering held in Cannes on October 12. Dufour identified the United States as the most developed and contest-ready territory within the FAST landscape. The forthcoming push into that market will open with a collection of owned-and-operated channels, including the film-focused Rakuten TV Comedy and Rakuten TV Action, both of which are built around a movie catalogue deliberately assembled to avoid overlap with titles already available on competing services.
Those two channels are set to appear on the TCLtv+ app at launch, with further platform partnerships lined up to follow. Dufour also indicated that international expansions across all markets are being shaped around local conditions rather than transplanted wholesale from the approach taken in Europe. Two FAST channels are set to launch on Rakuten TV within the Middle East before the calendar year draws to a close.
In Japan, the arrangement positions Rakuten Group — the Tokyo-headquartered technology conglomerate behind Rakuten TV — as the technical integrator responsible for bringing FAST channel delivery to its own proprietary streaming platform, R Channels. Dufour described the expansion as an opening step toward broader goals for Rakuten TV Enterprise, while the wider group currently operates over 120 owned-and-operated channels across Europe, more than 500 FAST channels spanning 43 territories, and its own Rakuten TV app.
A handful of shifts reshaped the industry over the course of the past twelve months. Plans for a Netflix–Warner Bros. tie-up gave way to a different arrangement, with Skydance stepping in as the partner behind a deal that brought Warner Bros. and Paramount together. Plans are in place at Disney to fold Hulu into the Disney+ platform, though no firm date for that transition has been set.
Ad-supported streaming platforms are navigating their own round of shifts, even as rising subscription costs push more viewers toward no-cost options. Shareholder votes gave formal backing to the deal through which Fox took over Roku. Despite holding ownership of both Roku and Tubi, Fox has kept the two platforms running as distinct, independent operations. Among free ad-supported streaming platforms operating in the U.S., the Roku Channel posted the top audience share for November 2022, and that position has strengthened further in the period following the merger.
Operated as a streaming platform for on-demand video content, Rakuten TV sits within the broader portfolio of the Tokyo-based technology group Rakuten. Rakuten TV Europe handles the platform's operations across the continent, with its base of operations established in Barcelona, Spain, while Rakuten handles the platform as a standalone offering for the Japanese market. On the Rakuten TV platform, viewers can access films and television series through a subscription plan, one-off rentals, or outright purchases, while a separate lineup of FAST channels draws on both regional programming and international offerings.
