Free streaming platform Tubi will continue to run as an independent service as new owner Fox Corporation evaluates how to leverage the news and sports programming expertise of its latest acquisition.

Fox Corporation will pay approximately US$440 million in cash to acquire the ad-supported streamer as part of the Fox plan to broaden the company’s direct-to-consumer digital reach and engagement. Fox will principally finance the acquisition with the sale of its stake in Roku.

The deal is expected to close before June 30, 2020. Tubi founder and CEO Farhad Massoudi will continue to head up the company.

Tubi brings Fox a younger audience that is deeply online – the Tubi user spends over 160 million hours per month watching content on the service. It’s currently available on more than 25 digital platforms in the U.S. and offers 20,000 titles and 56,000 hours of film and television from over 250 content partners.

Fox plans to integrate Tubi into its digital advertising, direct-to-consumer interfaces and personalization technology, while Tubi will grow with help from FOX’s advertising and distribution relationships, as well as its national and local promotional platforms.

“Tubi will immediately expand our direct-to-consumer audience and capabilities and will provide our advertising partners with more opportunities to reach audiences at scale,” said executive chairman and chief executive officer of Fox Corporation, Lachlan Murdoch in a statement. “Importantly, coupled with the combined power of FOX’s existing networks, Tubi provides a substantial base from which we will drive long-term growth in the direct-to-consumer arena.”

“Fox Corporation’s relationships with advertisers and distribution partners, combined with the company’s dominance in news and sports programming, will help Tubi continue to grow and differentiate itself in the high-growth ad-supported streaming marketplace,” added Massoudi.

Tubi operates in Canada alongside a raft of other AVODs like CBC Gem, CTV Movies and CTV Throwback.

This story originally appeared in Realscreen