This year’s Super Bowl will stream live on Tubi, the first time the Big Game will be available on a free ad-supported streaming platform. The Fox-owned streamer’s coverage presents a unique opportunity for marketers to reach a large and younger audience at a fraction of what a national spot costs on Fox, and some suspect this year’s discount may be a once-in-a-lifetime rate for ad buyers.

The majority of the ads viewers on Tubi see will be the same as the ones that air on Fox; all national advertising will be mirrored on the Fox-owned FAST platform. But for the regional ad spots in the broadcast game, Tubi was able to sell its own inventory that will air only on the streamer, according to three ad buyers familiar with dealmaking.

The price for 30 seconds of ad time on Tubi started at $1 million, with some deals ending up at $2 million as buyers rushed to grab units, according to the buyers. They noted flexibility to buy 15-second units for half the cost, and added that in addition to the unit price, Fox asked for an additional spend of $500,000 to $1 million, depending on an advertiser’s broader partnerships with Fox, on Tubi within the 2025 calendar year.

Fox didn’t respond to a request for comment on its Super Bowl negotiations by deadline.

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While Tubi’s pricing is far lower than the $7 million to $8 million advertisers paid for 30 seconds of national ad space on Fox, the audience will also be much smaller than broadcast’s, which last year hit 120 million on CBS out of the 123.4 million total for Super Bowl LVIII. 

Fox doesn’t have past data for Tubi Super Bowl viewership as it’s the first year the platform is simulcasting the game. The media company has given advertisers an estimate that 8.5 million will stream the game on Tubi and the NFL’s digital apps combined, said Vicky Chang, VP of media at TV ad buying platform Tatari.

While Super Bowls have previously been simulcast on paid services, such as Paramount+ in 2024, Chang estimates streaming viewership will be higher this year since users won’t need to subscribe and pay to watch the game. Tatari estimates that 15 million to 20 million viewers will stream the game on Tubi this Sunday.

Tubi announced Jan. 15 that it would stream Super Bowl LIX, and Chang said advertisers were given little prior notice to lock in deals for the streaming inventory. Some spots were already taken by holding company agencies when the offer hit the market, with about eight spots remaining, per Chang. Tatari secured space for at least two clients within two days of seeing the offer. Chang declined to share pricing for Super Bowl ad deals on Tubi.

The Tubi stream also offers potential reach with a younger audience than the main broadcast. Tubi has reported over half of its 97 million monthly users are Gen Z or millennials and 77% don’t have access to cable. It is surrounding the game with content created for that audience, such as a Tubi pre-game red carpet hosted by model Olivia Culpo, a companion mobile site for curated shopping during the game and a re-airing of Tubi original comedy “The Z-Suite,” which follows the clash between an ad agency’s leadership and its Gen Z employees.

Watch Tubi’s Super Bowl ad teaser

Event ticketing platform TickPick is one brand running an ad on only Tubi. While TickPick has previously focused on performance marketing in digital channels, it has been ramping up its TV strategy over the past year as it seeks to grow consumer awareness against competitors such as Ticketmaster and StubHub, said Matt Ferrel, VP, head of growth for TickPick.

As such, TickPick’s U.S. measured media spending was $11 million in 2023 and climbed to $16 million in the first three quarters of 2024, per MediaRadar.

TV had previously been a difficult medium for TickPick to test as attributing app downloads or website visits to linear ads can be complex for performance marketers. TickPick has been testing ads in live sports with Tatari, which buys, targets and measures TV advertising based on a client’s goal metrics. Before buying its Super Bowl ad on Tubi, TickPick’s largest TV buy was two spots in last year’s World Series. Based on the performance of those ads and trends in TickPick’s digital advertising—Ferrel said 98% of the brand’s YouTube ads are delivered on a TV—streaming Super Bowl was a natural next step.

TickPick will be looking at typical metrics such as reach and lift in brand awareness immediately following the Super Bowl, but Ferrel is more interested in the months that follow, when the brand will be able to retarget the larger audience that encounters its ad during the Super Bowl and measure more granular results, such as cost per unique web visit and cost per download associated with the Super Bowl buy.

“We’ll start seeing a more complete picture of that over the next three months, which is what these large-scale investments do for our business in aggregate, and can we start planning for that in subsequent years,” said Ferrel.

The Super Bowl on Tubi has introduced additional ways for brands not ready to pay full price to surround the game. Tatari’s Chang said clients have made ad buys across Tubi’s platform in the days surrounding the game. While advertising on Tubi during Super Bowl weekend won’t put brands in the game or the surrounding programming, Chang said there’s no upcharge and clients have gotten crafty with audience targeting to reach first-time users or serve first impressions in a user’s Tubi viewing outside of the game.

Tubi’s average CPM, or cost per thousand viewers, was $17.95 in 2024, according to Ad Age’s streaming pricing chart.

However, this year’s streaming Super Bowl ad deals may be a one-time opportunity. Chang predicts that if viewership exceeds Fox’s estimates, media companies hosting the Super Bowl will begin raising prices for streaming-only inventory beyond the rate range for regional ad space. And clients who have gotten into streaming Super Bowl deals early will have a leg up in future negotiations as they will have first pick when the same media company hosts the Big Game again.