Free movie streaming app Tubi will come preloaded on LG smartphones

The company behind Tubi has announced a multi-year partnership with LG Mobile, that will result in the free, ad-supported movie streaming app getting pre-installed to "tens of millions" of LG smartphones in the US and Canada.

LG phones with Tubi are now available at T-Mobile, and will be coming to US Cellular, MetroPCS, and more. Tubi says additional carriers will be added soon.

Yongsuk Kim, VP of Strategy at LG Mobile is quoted as saying: "While taking advantage of the LG Dual Screen and 5G on the all-new V60 ThinQ 5G, this venture reinforces LG's mobile phones commitment to meet the increasing demand for entertainment consumption on handheld devices."

Given the COVID-19 situation, that appears to be a smart strategy for LG and even more so for Tubi. "Our partnership with Tubi is a great opportunity for LG customers to experience streaming content on their smartphones," LG also said.

Tubi is a free ad-supported video-on-demand service, with unskippable commercial breaks during programming. The app is available on iOS and Android, Apple TV, Playstation, Xbox, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung TV and more, with over 20,000 movies and television shows on catalog.

It's not clear yet if the app will be uninstallable, or LG smartphone users who aren't interested will not be able to remove it.

Another mobile video streaming app, Quibi, was recently launched in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic keeping most families at home, and turning to online entertainment. Quibi features a generous 90-day free trial, so it's early to say if the app will be successful in terms of subscriptions, though it has been downloaded over 2.7 million times in just its first two weeks of release.