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How does the ad experience on a free streaming service compare to paid counterparts?

Streaming ads are simply a fact of life these days. Every major paid streaming service in the United States — with the exception of Apple TV+ — offers an ad plan these days, and the experience can vary greatly from service to service. But how does a streaming service that was always intended to be ad-supported stack up to premium services? I tested Tubi to find out the answer to that question, and you can read more about my experiment below.

Everything you need to know about the ad experience on Tubi

How many ads does Tubi show on licensed TV shows?

How many ads does Tubi show on original TV shows?

How many ads does Tubi show with movies?

Does Tubi offer ads during kids content?

Does Tubi have pause ads?

Bottom line

How many ads does...

Today, Netflix released the full-length trailer for Missing You, Harlan Coben’s next thriller starring Rosalind Eleazar in the lead role. The five-part limited series will debut on Netflix globally on January 1, 2025.

Missing You focuses on Kat Donovan (Eleazar), a detective specializing in missing persons. Eleven years ago, her fiancé Josh, the love of her life, vanished without a trace and she hasn’t heard from him since.

Now, swiping profiles on a dating app, she suddenly sees his face and her world explodes all over again. Josh’s unexpected reappearance will force her to dive back into the mystery surrounding her father’s murder and uncover long-buried secrets from her past.

The series also stars Ashley Walters, Richard Armitage, Sir Lenny Henry, Steve Pemberton, Jessica Plummer, Mary Malone, Lisa Faulkner and James Nesbitt.

Missing You follows the success of Harlan Coben’s Fool Me Once, which was named as #1 most-viewed TV show,...

The stylish neo-noir thriller Magpie is set to play on the big screen in New York, Los Angeles, and select U.S. cities starting on October 25th, and with that theatrical release date just one month away, Shout! Studios has unveiled a poster and a trailer for the film. The trailer can be viewed in the embed above, and the poster can be found at the bottom of this article.

Directed by Sam Yates from a screenplay by Tom Bateman that was based on an original idea by star Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Magpie has the following synopsis: The lives of married couple Anette and Ben begin to fracture when their daughter is cast alongside a glamorous movie star, Alicia. As Anette’s suspicions of Ben’s infatuation with Alicia intensify, their secrets and lies threaten to burst to the surface and destroy them all.

Ridley plays...

HBO’s latest Game of Thrones prequel sure is filling up its tournament rolls.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has cast several more actors in its forthcoming first season, TVLine has learned. Among them are Edward Ashley (The Terror, Masters of the Air), who’ll play Ser Steffon Fossoway; Tom Vaughan-Lawlor (the Avengers films, Dublin Murders), who’ll play Plummer; and Henry Ashton (My Lady Jane, Outlander), who’ll play Daeron Targaryen — a relative of the one you’ve heard about in the most recent season of House of the Dragon.

More from TVLineYellowstone Spinoff The Madison Officially Lassos...

Tubi hired Mike Bidgoli, a six-year veteran of internet giant Meta, as chief product and technology officer for the Fox-owned free streaming service.

Bidgoli, who reports to CEO Anjali Sud, will be responsible for leading the product and engineering teams overseeing the product experience and innovation strategy for Tubi. Marios Assiotis, who previously served as Tubi’s Cto, earlier this year moved over to Adrise, the audience network and ad tech platform that Fox acquired as part of the Tubi deal in 2020. Meanwhile, Michael Ahiakpor, formerly Tubi’s chief product officer, said he left the company in April after 11 years with the company “to focus on my health and happiness.”

Bidgoli most recently served as head of product for new monetization experiences at Meta, where he was responsible for the company’s subscription strategy and ad products including Meta Verified. Prior to that, he led development of video products at Facebook,...

The Beatles make an appearance in Doctor Who’s new series – but not with the costly music. Russell T Davies explains more.

The second episode in the new series of Doctor Who – which the BBC and Disney+ seems to be banding, as teased, as season one – sees Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor and Millie Gibson’s Ruby in London in the 1960s. Revealing only what’s been giving away in the promotion for the episode, the Doctor and Ruby find themselves at Abbey Road Studios for an encounter with The Beatles.

Russell T Davies talked about the inspiration for the episode in question, entitled The Devil’s Chord, at the launch for the new series in London last week. The Devil’s Chord, he revealed, came from a conversation he’d had with a director by the name of Sam Arbo.

Arbo directed the Amazon Prime show Dead Hot, which Davies...

While one of cinema's most successful and famous genres, mystery tends to start looking the same after a while. Though they always feature different kinds of characters and plots, these thriller stories of shocking discoveries rarely stray from their focus on some super-intelligent genius who uses their vast resources to unravel whatever question they encounter. This has led the genre to lack the nuanced themes necessary for audiences to really connect to its stories, which is why Dead Hot, created by Charlotte Coben, is so refreshing. A thrilling mystery-comedy featuring a primarily LGBTQ+ cast, this Tubi series veers sharply away from the anxiety-inducing intrigue of similar tales to create a surprisingly realistic showcase of how the average person would act when thrust into a mystery - namely, how completely unskilled they'd be. Led by the astounding talents of Vivian Oparah and Bilal Hasna, the series offers a hilarious look at...

The National Film and TV School (Nfts) Leeds has created a certificate in intimacy coordination for film and TV course, which will run as an intensive six-month programme.

The curriculum was developed in collaboration with intimacy coordinators from the UK, Spain, and the US and under the advisory of Bectu’s intimacy coordinator training branch, and aims to set a new standard in the field. It is the first certificate of this kind for Nfts.

Intimacy co-ordinator Haley Muraleedharan is leading the course, which will have space for 10 students, commencing in May.

Muraleedharan, whose intimacy co-ordination credits include feature Bonus...

Fox’s free streamer Tubi has added more than 200 movies to its service in Canada through a string of deals with the U.S. majors.

Library deals have been struck with NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Warner Bros. Discovery for franchise blockbusters and classic movies.

An agreement with NBCU sees titles such as The Girl on the Train, 8 Mile, the 1984 version of Dune and the Halloween and Back to the Future franchises, with Despicable Me, Jurassic Park, The Mummy and Fast & Furious films coming soon.

From Sony comes As Good As it Gets, The Whole Nine Yards, Salt, S.W.A.T. and XxX, with 21 Jump Street, Hancock, Step Brothers and Fury joining a later date.

The Wbd deal gives Tubi features including Assasins, Demolition Man, Constantine and The Blade series, with Final Destination, American History X, Central Intelligence and Cloud Atlas soon to be added.

The...

Dead Hot achieves the tricky balance in being a comedy thriller that delivers on both its genre expectations. With a strong narrative, and a compelling script, what really helps bring this tale to life are the performances, so naturally we were thrilled to have the opportunity to speak to three of its leading stars.

Below you can watch our interviews with Bilal Hasna and Vivian Oparah, who discuss the authenticity of the screenplay, and their on-screen relationship. They talk also about Oparah’s richly deserved BAFTA nomination for Rye Lane. Next up, in an audio interview, we speak to the esteemed comedic performer Peter Serafinowicz, a scene-stealer with brilliant timing, he discusses playing a detective, and his admiration for his promising co-stars. We also talk about shooting in Merseyside, and on that note, we can’t help but ask him about his thoughts on Jürgen Klopp leaving Liverpool…

Bilal Hasna...

Picking up on Berlinale Series Market hits, such as “Lost Boys & Fairies,” and teasing some of the big main competition swings at Series Mania – “Apples Never Fall,” “Rematch,” “So Long, Marianne” – the 2024 London TV Screenings are a powerhouse showcase of some of the biggest TV highlights of 2024, plus the trends shaping TV markets.

To help you cut through the slates, here’s Variety’s picks of 20 shows that will whet buyers’ appetites.

“Apples Never Fall” (NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution)

One highlight for NBCU, hosting the first London TV Screenings showcase on Monday Feb. 26 evening, is “The Day of the Jackal,” starring Eddie Redmayne, produced by “Top Boy” showrunner Ronan Bennett and directed by Brian Kirk (“Game of Thrones”). Highest profile, however – given its cast and now status as the biggest swing in Series Mania main competition – may be Peacock limited series “Apples Never Fall,” with Annette Bening as the...

Tubi, the streaming service that invites you to watch anything and everything and never asks you for so much as a penny, has announced this morning that they’ve picked up “Dead Hot,” an original series that’s being described as a fusion of the thriller and comedy genres.

“Dead Hot” will premiere on Tubi in both the United States and Canada.

THR details, “The Liverpool-set series tells the story of two twentysomethings Elliot and Jess, best friends united by a bond of grief at losing Peter—the first and only love of Elliot and Jess’ twin brother, who went missing in mysterious circumstances five years previously. Still reeling from the trauma, the best friends spiral into a hedonistic lifestyle, partying to numb their grief while clinging to a small hope that they will one day find out what happened.”

The cast for the British series includes Bilal Hasna, Vivian Oparah,...

Tubi, Fox’s ad-supported streaming service, has landed the U.S. and Canada rights to the upcoming British comedy thriller Dead Hot.

The Liverpool-set series tells the story of two twentysomethings Elliot and Jess, best friends united by a bond of grief at losing Peter—the first and only love of Elliot and Jess’ twin brother, who went missing in mysterious circumstances five years previously. Still reeling from the trauma, the best friends spiral into a hedonistic lifestyle, partying to numb their grief while clinging to a small hope that they will one day find out what happened.

The six-episode series is led by rising stars Bilal Hasna, who plays Elliot, and Vivian Oparah, who plays Jess. Penelope Wilton and Peter Serafinowicz round out the cast.

Dead Hot is created, written and executive produced by Charlotte Coben, daughter of author Harlan Coben and a producer and writer on Netflix’s popular Coben adaptations The Stranger,...

Exclusive: Olivia Holt (Totally Killer), Connor Swindells (Barbie), Lucy Punch (Motherland) and Peter Serafinowicz (Guardians of the Galaxy) are in production in London on Jingle Bell Heist, a new rom-com that Michael Fimognari (To All the Boys franchise) is directing for Ace Entertainment.

Written by New York Times bestselling author and screenwriter Abby McDonald (Bridgerton), with additional writing by Amy Reed, the film follows Sophia (Holt) and Nick (Swindells), two small-time thieves who discover they’re chasing the same job — robbing one of London’s most infamous department stores on Christmas Eve. Now, they must reluctantly team up, but as their feelings for each other deepen, the secrets they keep may ultimately put their relationship and the heist in jeopardy.

Matt Kaplan is producing for Ace Entertainment, which is also financing the feature, with Christopher Foss, Matthew Janzen, Aubrey Bendix, and Braden Bochner overseeing production for the company. Mark Lane...

Exclusive: Trailer has dropped for Netflix’s latest Harlan Coben adaptation Fool Me Once.

The series stars Michelle Keegan, Adeel Akhtar, Richard Armitage, Joanna Lumley, Emmett J. Scanlan and Dino Fetscher and is the latest in a long line of Coben Netflix shows.

It follows Maya (Keegan), who is trying to come to terms with the brutal murder of her husband, Joe (Armitage). But when Maya installs a nanny-cam to keep an eye on her young daughter, she is shocked to see a man she recognizes in her house, her husband, who she thought was dead. Detective Sergeant Sami Kierce (Akhtar) leads the homicide investigation into Joe’s death while grappling with secrets of his own.

Netflix has already made adaptations of Coben novels including The Stranger, Safe and Stay Close via a major deal stuck in 2018.

Fool Me Once is produced by Nicola Shindler’s Quay Street, which is...