SAN JOSE, Calif.—Roku has driven the final nail in Quibi’s coffin, announcing that the short-lived mobile streaming platform’s content it acquired in January will be rebranded as “Roku Originals.” All Roku Originals will play on the Roku Channel and debut later this year.

There will be more than 75 Roku Originals, including a dozen of series that Quibi had not yet released before its demise. Any future original programming on the Roku Channel will also carry the Roku Originals brand.

Some of the shows that will now fly under the Roku Originals banner include “Survive,” “The Most Dangerous Game,” “Chrissy’s Court” and more from the likes of Anna Kendrick, Idris Elba, Lena Waithe and Kevin Hart.

No official premiere date for the Roku Originals has been announced. Roku says that it will share additional details on the launch in May.

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Roku has brought Quibi back from the dead, in a manner, as the streaming device company has announced that it has acquired the exclusive global distribution rights to more than 75 Quibi shows and documentaries, making the content available for free on an ad-supported basis to all Roku users.

Officially, Roku acquired Quibi Holdings LLC, the company that held all of Quibi’s content distribution rights. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Quibi was the mobile-focused streaming service launched by Jeffrey Katzenberg in the spring of 2020. It featured series with 10-minute episodes that were designed to be consumed on people’s phones while they were on the go. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic causing stay-at-home orders starting in March 2020, Quibi’s mobile strategy became moot. Despite efforts to pivot, Quibi announced in October 2020 that it would shut down.

Quibi did not skimp on its content however, spending millions on series that starred the likes of Idris Elba, Kevin Hart, Anna Kendrick, Sophie Turner, Liam Hemsworth and more. Quibi also earned a pair of Creative Arts Emmys for its show “#FreeRayshawn.”

The Roku Channel will be the new home of all of the shows that had premiered on Quibi, as well as more than a dozen new programs that will have their exclusive debut on The Roku Channel.

As the number of streaming options continues to grow, Roku has been putting a greater focus on The Roku Channel, which offers free and premium news and entertainment content. In the fourth quarter of 2020, Roku says that The Roku Channel was a top 10 channel in both streaming hours and active accounts.

“The Roku Channel is one of the largest and fastest growing channels on our platform today and we are consistently expanding the breadth and quality of our free, ad-supported content for our users,” said Rob Holmes, ice president of Programming at Roku. “Today’s announcement marks a rare opportunity to acquire compelling new original programming that features some of the biggest names in entertainment. We’re excited to make this content available for free to our users in The Roku Channel through an ad-supported model. We are also thrilled to welcome the incredible studios and talented individuals who brought these stories to life and showcase them to our tens of millions of viewers.”

Roku is looking to continue its growth as one of the most popular streaming platforms. This includes it becoming the top selling Smart TV OS in North America in 2020.

No word was given as to when Quibi content will premiere on The Roku Channel.

NEW YORK—With Quibi announcing that it will be shutting down operations, the question of why Jeffrey Katzenberg’s short-form, mobile-focused streaming service failed is sure to raise a number of theories. According to MediaRadar, Quibi was simply not able to make in-roads against new streaming competitors despite major ad campaigns.

In an analysis of Quibi’s ad spending in 2020, MediaRadar found that the streaming service spent $63 million on TV, print and digital advertising. This put it as the fifth largest advertiser in the streaming category, year-to-date, behind (in alphabetical order) Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu and Peacock.

Quibi made large advertising pushes ahead of its April launch, staring with an ad during the Super Bowl in February. It again made a big push in July, August and September. Quibi was still advertising in October, with MediaRadar reporting to have seen an ad as recently as Oct. 18, although the company found that Quibi’s efforts were tailing off.

“Quibi was a bold business model looking to capitalize on the rise of streaming and the fact that consumers are always on the go,” said Todd Krizelman, CEO and co-founder, MediaRadar. “The application was slick and the production value was high. Many feel the timing was off, launching at the start of a pandemic. But this narrative doesn’t entirely fit. Due to COVID-incudced lockdowns in April, commute times were eliminated, people had more disposable time than ever to sample new services, like Quibi. We also learned that people were willing to pay for video content. For example, Disney+ subscriptions surged much faster than expected. 

“What was, and is a real constraint, is the degree of competition. It’s more severe than ever. Disney+, Apple TV+, HBO Max and the introduction of Peacock around the same time made it hard to break through the noise. Services, such as TikTok, Snapchat and Triller—and of course YouTube—pressed on the accelerator during these months, flooding the market with short-form video.”

For more information, visit www.mediaradar.com.  

UPDATED 10/21, 6:20 p.m.

NEW YORK—Quibi, the mobile-focused streaming service that offered 10-minute episodes, is shutting down. The news, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, has been confirmed by Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman.

"Quibi was founded to create the next generation of storytelling," Katzenberg said in a statement. "We have assembled a world-class creative and engineering team that has created an original platform fueled by groundbreaking technology and IP, enabling consumers to view premium content in a whole new way. The world has changed dramatically since Quibi launched and our standalone business model is no longer viable. I am deeply grateful to our employees, investors, talent, studio partners and advertisers for their partnership in bringing Quibi to millions of mobile devices."

Quibi launched in April, featuring a number of star-driven series that were broken up into 10-minute episodes meant to be watched on people’s phones. However, because pandemic restrictions have kept people at home, people quickly wanted to be able to watch Quibi’s programming on their TVs, which was not immediately available. 

The platform eventually added a casting capability, but in July, after its initial free trial promotion ended, 90% of users on free trials did not keep the service at a $4.99/month plan. TVT’s sister publication Next|TV reported that earlier this week Quibi added TV apps on Amazon Fire, Apple TV and Android TV.

Quibi will now start to wind down its operations and plans to dissolve the company and identify "a suitable buyer or buyers for its assets." 

"While we have enough capital to continue operating for a significant period of time, we made the difficult decision to wind down the business, return cash to our shareholders and say goodbye to our talented colleagues with grace," said Whitman. "We continue to believe that there is an attractive market for premium, short-form content. Over the coming months we will be working to find buyers for these valuable assets who can leverage them to their full potential."

Quibi raised $1.75 billion ahead of its April launch. However, reports said that the company was looking for additional funding, and The Information reported earlier this week that attempted sales of Quibi’s catalog of content to Facebook and NBCUniversal failed. Quibi says that it will return the remaining funds from that $1.75 billion to investors "as specified in the company's operating agreement."

Quibi subscribers will receive separate notifications on when the platform will no longer be accessible.

A report from mobile analytics firm Sensor Tower paints a rough picture for the mobile streaming service Quibi. The firm found that at the conclusion of Quibi’s 90-day free-trial period that was available shortly after launch, 72,000 users continued to use the app out of a reported 910,000; that’s about an 8% conversion rate.

These numbers are not the complete picture for Quibi, however. The company has not disclosed the total number of current paying subscribers, but it says that its app was downloaded by 5.6 million people since April.

Quibi, which was founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg, delivers 10-minute episodes of content that was designed to be viewed specifically on a phone. However, having been released at the onset of lockdowns and hearing from its initial batch of users, Quibi worked to make the content available on TVs as well.

For more information, read the full story on The Verge.

LOS ANGELES—Quibi has added a new feature that provides additional viewing capabilities to what was at first supposed to be a mobile-only streaming service. According to Quibi’s Chief Product Officer Tom Conrad, the latest version of Quibi has Apple AirPlay capability for iOS devices.

Conrad announced the news on Twitter, also sharing that they are working to add Chromecast in June.

This meets the time frame that Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg announced in April, where he said some Quibi users will be able to cast content to TVs in May.

Quibi’s streaming service offers 10-minute episodes of content that were designed to be consumed while people were on the go. But as the coronavirus has limited travel, many subscribers were calling for the ability to watch Quibi’s content on their TVs.

LOS ANGELES—Quibi is coming to subscribers’ TVs as early as May, according to a report from Reuters. Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg says that the ability to cast content onto a TV will only be available for some users at that time.

Quibi, a new streaming service that offers all its content in 10 minute doses, initially intended to be a mobile-only service, but some early viewers complained about the inability to watch programming on their TVs. This was particularly relevant as Quibi’s launch came during stay-at-home orders due to the coronavirus.

In addition to the ability to soon watch content on TV, Quibi has announced that since its launch on April 6, it has had 2.7 million downloads. A week after launch it was at 1.7 million. Katzenberg viewed the numbers as “encouraging,” especially because Quibi is not associated with any prior brand, he told Reuters.

Quibi is currently offering new subscribers 90-day free trials in the U.S. and Canada, after which the subscription will cost either $5 or $8 a month for versions with or without ads, respectively.

LOS ANGELES—Quibi was originally slated to be a streaming service just for phones, but after many viewers reportedly complained about that limited access post launch, Quibi is now eyeing a debut on TVs, according to what Quibi CEO Meg Whitman told Bloomberg Television.

“It’s quite an engineering lift—it’s not easy—but engineers are trying to think about how to do this on an accelerated time scale,” Whitman said in the Bloomberg TV interview. “We’ve had a lot of requests for it.”

Whitman said that Quibi on TV may be available within six months. While she told Bloomberg they may have developed a TV option at some point, the coronavirus pandemic that is keeping people at home has ramped up demands and the need for such an option.

The Quibi streaming service, which was founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg, features original content that is presented in 10 minute or less episodes, with new episodes released daily. It features content from Jennifer Lopez, Anna Kendrick, Bill Murray, Will Smith, Steven Spielberg, Sophie Turner and more. Quibi plans to release 175 original shows in its first year.

In its first week, Quibi reportedly had 1.7 million downloads. 

LOS ANGELES—Quibi has officially entered the streaming wars with its launch on Monday, April 6, in the U.S. and Canada.

Quibi, which was founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg, is an entertainment platform designed specifically for the phone. It features original content that are all 10 minutes or less, with more than 25 new episodes of content released every weekday, or seven days a week for news, sports and weather content, per Quibi.

The new platform touts its lineup of original programming featuring major Hollywood talent. Among the content available at launch is “Survive” starring “Game of Thrones” alum Sophie Turner; “Most Dangerous Game” with Liam Hemsworth and Christoph Waltz; “Punk’d” with Chance the Rapper; “Thanks a Million” from Jennifer Lopez; “Chrissy’s Court” starring Chrissy Teigen; as well as other programs like “Murder House Flip,” “Around the World by BBC News” and “The Replay by ESPN.”

Quibi plans to release 175 original shows and 8,500 “quick bites” of content in its first year. It still has some big names to come, including Steve Spielberg, Will Smith, Bill Murray, Anna Kendrick, Laura Dern and more.

On the tech side of Quibi’s offering is what it calls Turnstyle technology. The patented technology allows viewers to move seamlessly between full-screen portrait and full-screen landscape without any delay.

TV Technology sister publication B&C sat down with Katzenberg ahead of Quibi’s launch to discuss the new platform.

Quibi, which can be downloaded either through the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, will be available for a 90-day free trial if you sign up before the end of April. After the free trial, Quibi costs $4.99 with ads and $7.99 without ads.

Quibi joins an ever increasing content landscape with stalwarts like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime, new entrants like Disney+—which has had quick success—and Apple TV+, and other upcoming platforms like NBCUniversal’s Peacock and HBO Max. 

MIAMI—Less than a year away from the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Noticias Telemundo is ramping up its election coverage with a particular increase in its digital operations. In a recent press release, the Hispanic-language network announced some of its planned digital programming as well as new hires for what it bills as its “biggest-ever electoral coverage.”

“Our web, app and social platforms will feature three times the volume of political content in comparison to 2016,” said Maria Luisa Tabares, director of Digital News Content.

Part of Noticias Telemundo’s digital strategy will include exclusive programming on popular and emerging digital platforms. One will be a daily YouTube native newscast done in English, while the network will also produce a news show for the new digital platform Quibi.

In addition, Noticias Telemundo has announced that it has doubled the size of its editorial team, bringing in multimedia journalists to produce stories specifically for digital, social and linear platforms.

Other efforts in the run-up to the 2020 election include partnerships with fact-checking organizations like PolitiFact and Animal Politico; a partnership with the Des Moines Register; and the previous actions of building a new studio and hirings that include Patsy Loris as senior vice president, elections 2020, and appointing Romina Rosado as the head of digital news.

“Latinos are increasingly consuming most of their political news online or via mobile devices,” said Rosado. “Our expanded digital operations will get us even closer to our audience during a critical electoral year.”

More information can be found at the newly redesigned Noticias Telemundo website.

Director Stephen Spielberg has written about a half dozen episodes of a new horror series for his friend Jeffrey Katzenberg’s new Quibi streaming service, due to debut next year. But there’s a catch—Spielberg will only allow the series (tentatively titled “Spielberg After Dark’) to be viewed after midnight, according to Variety.

To accomplish this, the series will only be available on mobile phones, in which the GPS tracks the phone’s geographic location. A clock on the phone will count down until the sun sets in the viewer’s area. After the sun sets, the clock starts ticking until sunrise, after which the series won’t be viewable until the next evening.

Katzenberg’s plan for Quibi is to popularize short-form programming outside of the usual 30-60 minute programming tradition. Quibi has invested $1 billion in advance of an April 2020 launch.

Variety has the story.