The 'Boarders' Return for Season 2 Gives Them New Competition

Streaming services in the U.K. are generally relatively easy to identify with their on-air counterparts; BBC iPlayer is, obviously, the BBC, ITVX is ITV, More4 is Channel 4, My5 is Channel 5, etc. In comparison, most American streaming services downright obfuscate what network they're associated with (Disney+ excepted); you must know a bit about American TV history to understand why NBC = Peacock or how dumb it was to remove the "HBO" from Max. However, the FAST channels (Free Ad-Supported TV) are the hardest to identify with a network, even for the most popular one: Tubi.

Tubi would probably prefer it if you didn't know it was a Fox-owned service, considering the political climate and owner Rupert Murdoch's right-wing stances. However, like the original TV network, the content is not chosen for its opinions but for serving an audience, especially a younger, hipper one. This is how The Simpsons became the series that put Fox on the map, and its early years defined by shows for working and middle-class Black viewers like In Living Color and Teen soaps like 90210. That original model was so successful that, within five years of its launch, Fox had changed the TV landscape from the "Big Three" to the "Big Four."

Unsurprisingly, Tubi is currently experiencing similar success in aiming for those same viewers; the free service has more subscribers than most "popular" subscription services due to shows like Big Mood and Boarders, which now returns for Season 2. It's a perfectly timed rollout to maximize mainstream awareness, not just because the show debuts in the U.K. in February. Fox has the Super Bowl for 2025, and with no pay service, it will stream the game on Tubi for free, guaranteeing a massive audience for all the upcoming shows it will advertise during the game.