Tubi — the free and ad-supported streaming service owned by Fox — today announced that it’s fired up a “FIFA World Cup FAST Channel.” If the name wasn’t clear enough (despite being a mouthful), it basically means all World Cup, all the time, with ads.
Why is Fox doing this in addition to actually having the U.S. rights to let you watch the 2022 FIFA World Cup? Because it can — and because it’s another avenue on which to show the games, and sell advertising.
There’s one major difference, though. While Fox (and FS1) will show all 64 games live, Tubi’s coverage is all about on-demand, with all games available as a replay. (A previous version of this story stated that 29 games would be shown live on Tubi; that was based on a Fox Sports support page that has since been taken down, and Fox tells us Tubi won’t have live games.)
“We’re proud to be the ultimate streaming destination in the U.S. to celebrate the highly anticipated FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 tournament,” Farhad Massoudi, founder and CEO of Tubi, said in a press release. “We’re thrilled to give our viewers different entry points to enjoy one of the largest global sports events, whether they want to drop in to the experience via our FAST Channel or actively engage through VOD, Tubi is making sure soccer fans never miss a moment of this historic winter World Cup.”
At launch, the channel promises “premium library content.” That line doesn’t actually mean anything, but you can look forward to “series and films highlighting past and future FIFA World Cup tournaments.” Shows (which already are available in the Tubi proper app) include:
- FIFA World Cup Classics
- FIFA Women’s World Cup Classics
- Gold Stars — The True Story
- When the World Watched
- Etched in Gold
You’ll also be bale to watch matches from the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015 (spoiler, the U.S. won), FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 (the French men were champs), and FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019 (again, the U.S. women took that one).
The FIFA World Cup FAST Channel joins other purpose-built channels from Fox, such as Gordon Ramsay FAST Channel (see the pattern?) News on Tubi, Sports on Tubi, Tubi Originals, The TMZ Channel, and The Masked Singer.
Tubi is available on every major streaming platform, including Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast with Google TV, Android TV, in a web browser, on various smart TVs, and on other smart displays. It boasts more than 45,000 movies and shows in the U.S. and saw some 51 million active users in the first quarter of 2022.
