How the Free-Streaming Platform Tubi has Saved Cartoon Network

Tubi, on behalf of 90s and 2000s kids everywhere, thank you for saving Cartoon Network.

When HBO Max launched almost six years ago, one of its key selling points was its catalogue of classic cartoons. Everything from the classic Looney Tunes to the shows that my generation and onwards grew up watching on Cartoon Network. Many of these shows hadn’t been seen on TV for years outside of retro channels that some of us didn’t even have! But this cartoon paradise grew sour. Warner Bros started purging their streaming platform of many of the cartoons I grew up watching. Not to mention how the app was the only legal way to watch some of these shows! I’ve already discussed my disappointment with them many times in the past, so I won’t keep beating a dead horse. All I’ll say is that I can’t use the platform even if I wanted to; it won’t accept my family’s login no matter what we do!

In trying times such as this, people need a hero to save them. And it looks like Cartoon Network fans have gotten one in the form of a streaming service they might not even know exists. But that’s about to change. Its name is Tubi.

Tubi is an underrated underdog in Streaming

If you haven’t heard about Tubi before, I do not blame you. It’s hard to compete with household brands like Disney+, Netflix, Crunchyroll, and Amazon Prime. They’re not really known for creating original content, which might be a reason why some people overlook them. And there’s also the fact that they are a streaming platform with ads. This means that whatever you’re watching on Tubi will eventually get broken up by a few brief commercials. In a society where people will do anything to block ads, that might seem like a dealbreaker. Having used it for myself, though, I assure you that the benefits outweigh the pitfall.

First off, Tubi is free. You don’t have to pay a single dime to watch anything on it. Instead of making money from subscriptions, it uses its ad revenue to stay afloat. Considering how I grew up in a time where you had to watch commercials when you wanted to watch something live, that’s nothing. Plus, I play games on my phone where you can earn cash by watching ads; this is nothing to me!

Secondly, while it doesn’t have much original content, Tubi makes up for it with its catalogue of media. I stumbled upon it by complete accident, and discovered that it had shows like Garfield and Friends. Up until that point, the only way I could watch it was in old YouTube videos, DVD, or third-party websites. It’s where I was able to watch the old Beetlejuice cartoon! I also started using to watch Babylon 5, which was pretty cool. The point is that there is a lot of stuff on it that I think most people would like. And it’s for free!

LOOK AT IT!!!

If that’s not enough to convince you that Tubi is the real deal, here’s the list of everything they plan to add starting March 1st:

This is an absolutely mind-boggling amount of cartoons being added. The first wave alone is going to have shows like Ed Edd n’ Eddy, Animaniacs, Dexter’s Lab, Ben 10, and the original Teen Titans. And some of the shows that it plans to add are from Kids WB and haven’t been legally seen in years! And all of this can be seen for free!

The Internet is losing its collective mind over this announcement, and for good reason. A lot of content creators I follow report on news about the animation industry, and many of them grew up on these very shows. And like me, many of them have been frustrated by Warner Bros unwillingness to let us watch them via legal methods. To us, Tubi feels like a dream come true! They’re likely to get millions of new watchers in the next few months!

I don’t know about you guys, but I think I’m done with HBO Max. I’m jumping ship for Tubi!