Tubi Is Expanding Its Animation Offerings With GKIDS Deal

Fox Entertainment’s free ad-supported streaming service Tubi has entered into a content partnership deal with animation distributor GKIDS.

Here are the details:

• Later this month, Tubi will begin rolling out select GKIDS titles. The initial slate of films is Ernest & Celestine, A Cat in Paris, Nocturna, Eleanor’s Secret, and The Painting. Also being made available via GKIDS: the Belgian animated specials A Town Called Panic: Back to School Panic and A Town Called Panic: Christmas Panic. (UPDATE: The series A Town Called Panic has been removed from the above list. It was erroneously included in Tubi’s press release.)
• Additional GKIDS titles will be made available later this year. It’s not clear what those titles will be, or if they’ll include some of GKIDS’s higher-profile releases such as The Tale of The Princess Kaguya, Song of the Sea, When Marnie Was There, My Life as a Zucchini, and The Breadwinner.
• Tubi has been aggressively licensing animation for its service. Last year, it added well-regarded anime features, such as Millennium Actress, Liz and the Blue Bird, and Penguin Highway. Other animated films on its platform include The Iron Giant, Animal Farm, Peter and the Wolf, and Monster House.
• Fox Corporation, which also operates Fox News Channel, has been in rebuilding mode since selling off most of its entertainment assets to the Walt Disney Company in 2019. The company announced earlier this week that it had acquired the iconic stop-motion character Gumby. Tubi is a “core pillar” of the company’s growth strategy. The service is projected to generate over $700 million in revenue this year.