Tubi (www.tubi.tv), the world’s largest ad-supported video on demand (VOD) service announced it has entered a content partnership deal with MGM Television to become the exclusive home for all 15 seasons of The Apprentice franchise.
Hosted initially by Donald Trump, then Arnold Schwarzenegger, fans of the franchise will relive moments from such recognizable competitors as Omarosa, Bill Rancic, Piers Morgan, Bret Michaels, Arsenio Hall, Trace Adkins, Leeza Gibbons, Khloe Kardashian, Cyndi Lauper, Lil Jon, Vivica A. Fox, and Geraldo Rivera as they proved their entrepreneurial savvy and business acumen. Starting today, Tubi customers will be able to easily access all seasons of The Apprentice franchise from one of the world’s leading content libraries – completely free.
“In our quest to democratize content and make more premium content accessible, we are making a big push into the reality television space,” said Farhad Massoudi, CEO, Tubi. “The Apprentice is our second big series announcement this month, and we will have more in the near future.”
“We appreciate our partnership with Tubi, and we are excited to share our content with their audience,” said Chris Ottinger, President, Worldwide Television Distribution and Acquisitions, MGM.
The debut season of The Apprentice premiered on NBC in 2004, delivering an average weekly viewership of 20.7 million, and was one of the network’s most-watched series with adults 18-49. The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice was hosted by Trump in its first 14 seasons, with the 15th season hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The series franchise has broadened globally with over 20 local versions.
Tubi continues to expand its already massive content library which presently contains more than 12,000 movies and television series – and expects to grow it at an even greater accelerated pace throughout the year. The company’s content volume is more than double in size to – approximately 40,000 hours of content. Tubi consistently ranks as one of the most watched apps on the world’s largest platforms including Amazon’s Fire TV, Roku iOS, Android, and many others.
Tubi recently announced record growth in 2018, with 4.3 times the amount of content on the service over the previous year – and in December 2018, customers streamed nearly as much content as all of 2017. The company also announced plans to reinvest profits of over nine figures into content acquisitions in 2019 to rapidly grow its already large catalog.
