Tubi Mocks Netflix's Latest Price Increase, With a Savage Take Down of Paid Streaming Services

Netflix just bumped Premium to $22.99 a month. Disney+ has crept from $7 to $12. Hulu Live TV is pushing $90. YouTube TV is $83. And somewhere in the middle of all this, Tubi — which is completely, unapologetically free — has been having a field day.

Tubi’s marketing team has been doing what most of us are already thinking out loud: pointing at the ever-rising wall of streaming bills and asking why you’re still paying them. It’s not subtle. It’s not trying to be. And honestly? The numbers have gotten so bad that you can’t really argue with the premise.

The Price Hike That Broke the Camel’s Back

Let me put these numbers next to each other, because it’s genuinely alarming when you line them up:

Disney+ launched at $7 in 2019. It’s now $12. That’s a 71% increase in under seven years. Netflix Standard was $13 when I first subscribed — now it’s $15.49, and that’s without 4K. Premium has cleared $22. If you’re stacking three or four of these, you’re easily spending $50–$70 a month on streaming subscriptions alone.

Tubi’s pitch is dead simple: why are you doing that?

What Tubi Actually Is (For Anyone Who’s Been Sleeping On It)

TubiFree

Tubi is a free, ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) service owned by Fox Corporation. It runs on the same model broadcast TV has used forever: you watch ads, they give you content at no charge. The library is genuinely large — we’re talking 50,000+ titles across movies and TV shows, plus a growing slate of live channels.

It’s not trying to out-Netflix Netflix. The catalog leans heavily toward older films, cult classics, international content, and B-tier TV. But it’s also not nothing — it’s a massive content library that costs exactly zero dollars per month.

And it’s on your Firestick right now, available directly from the Amazon App Store.

Why Tubi’s Moment Is Now

There’s a very specific thing happening in the streaming industry right now. The “streaming wars” phase — where every service was spending billions on content and charging next-to-nothing to grab subscribers — is definitively over. The phase we’re in now is the profitability phase. Services are cutting content spend, cracking down on password sharing, adding ads to previously ad-free tiers, and raising prices.

Consumers are doing the math. And the math increasingly says: pick one or two paid services you actually use every week, and fill the gaps with free options.

Tubi has positioned itself precisely at that gap. It doesn’t need to beat Netflix. It just needs to be the thing you add when you’re sick of paying for more.

Tubi vs. the Competition: The Honest Breakdown

The ads are the real tradeoff. Tubi runs commercial breaks, and they’re not short. If you’re used to ad-free Netflix or Disney+, it takes some adjustment. But then again — you’re also not paying $22.99 a month. That context matters.

How to Set Up Tubi on Your Firestick Right Now

If you haven’t installed Tubi yet, this is the fastest setup you’ll do all week.

The Bigger Picture: Building a Free Streaming Stack

The smartest Firestick setup right now isn’t “subscribe to everything.” It’s layering free services underneath one or two paid ones, and being deliberate about which paid services you’re actually using.

Here’s what a lean, cost-effective streaming stack looks like in 2026:

• Tubi — Free movies and TV, live channels
• Pluto TV — More free live TV channels
• Amazon Freevee — Already built into your Firestick
• One paid service — Whichever one you actually use (Netflix, Disney+, or Max)
• A VPN — To protect your privacy across all of it

That’s four content sources, most of them free, covering a massive amount of content. The paid subscription fills in the gaps (new releases, original series, whatever you’re currently binging). Everything else costs you nothing.

If you’re also interested in expanding beyond what’s in the official app store, check out our guide to sideloading apps on Firestick — that’s where services like Stremio and TeaTV come in.

The Bottom Line

Tubi’s jab at Netflix isn’t wrong. Premium at $22.99 a month is real money, especially when cable-replacement bundles are pushing $90. If you’re paying for multiple streaming services and you haven’t added Tubi to your Firestick, you’re leaving a free, 50,000-title library sitting on the table.

It won’t replace your Netflix subscription — the catalogs serve different purposes. But as a supplement, as a cost offset, as a reason to think twice before subscribing to that fourth service? Tubi makes a compelling case. And right now, it’s making that case very loudly.

For a full breakdown of what’s available on Tubi and how to get the most out of it on your Fire TV device, see our complete Tubi TV on Firestick guide. And if you want to go deeper on the free streaming landscape, our roundup of the best free Firestick apps is a good starting point.

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Last updated: March 2026