Tubi Acquires BBC Dramedy 'Boarders'

It is perhaps one of the great ironies of life that one of the most visible changes the Black Lives Matter movement had was in British television, where the BBC, as a government-funded broadcaster, has stuck to its commitment to diversifying the voices that create TV series. However, that impact is blunted by selling shows to the highest bidder in America, causing them to wind up all over the place. Champion, for example, just debuted on Netflix in Januar 2024; The Confessions of Frannie Langton streamed on BritBox. The upcoming Queenie (which wound up on ITV) will debut on Hulu. And now Boarders will go to...Tubi?

Tubi, for those who aren't sure what it is, is a FAST channel. As I've mentioned a couple of times recently, FAST is an acronym; it stands for Free Ad-supported Streaming Television, which is sort of like broadcast TV of old, but with a twist. They come as an app, much like Disney+, Max, YouTube, PBS, etc. However, there's no credit card involved, no need to prove you subscribe to cable, and no monthly fee. Instead, depending on which version you use, there's the old TV guide of channels, though channels dedicated to shows, endlessly showing season upon season, episode upon episode, or tiles, offering you endless viewing of films.

At first, these FAST channels just showed older stuff, series no one really cared to pay for, one million episodes of The Twilight Zone, and a thousand hours of Magnum PI, just like Netflix streaming did back in the day before it began creating original content. And now, just like Netflix, FAST channels are getting into the originals game, though not at the expense of making those originals themselves. Instead, they're scooping up shows no one else is buying or hard-up networks like Paramount+ need to sell for a quick buck, such as when Freevee bought The Flatshare, Roku got The Burning Girls, and now Tubi picking up Boarders.