Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by takyon on Tuesday June 30 2020, @03:44AM   Printer-friendly
from the Quibi-Quibbles dept.

From The Guardian:

Nearly three months ago, in early April, the $1.75bn content experiment known as Quibi lurched from its rocky, much-maligned promotional campaign into full-scale launch. The service offered a tsunami of celebrity-fronted shows segmented into "quick bites" (hence, "qui-bi") of 10 minutes or less – a Joe Jonas talk show, a documentary on LeBron James's I Promise school, a movie with Game of Thrones's Sophie Turner surviving a plane crash, all straight to your phone. At the time, many of us wondered if Quibi could deliver on its central promise – to refashion the style of streaming into "snackable" bites – or if, teetering under the weight of its massive funding and true who's who of talent as the world shut down, it would become shorthand for an expensive mistake.

The service, the brainchild of the DreamWorks Animation cofounder Jeffrey Katzenberg and the former Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman – two billionaires deeply entrenched in Hollywood and Silicon Valley establishment – was "either going to be a huge home run or a massive swing and a miss," Michael Goodman, a media analyst with Strategy Analytics, told the Guardian. Given a string of bad news since its 6 April launch – missed targets, executive departures, Katzenberg singularly blaming the pandemic – and the sunset of its 90-day free trial with millions fewer subscribers than anticipated, the scales seemed decidedly tipped toward swing and miss. But while it's too soon to declare the end of Quibi, it's still worth asking: is the promise of the quick bite already over? And what went so wrong?

Previously: Meg Whitman-Run Streaming Service "Quibi" Launches, Reception Mixed

Related: Fox Could Buy Tubi While NBCUniversal Eyes Vudu


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday June 30 2020, @04:29AM (3 children)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Tuesday June 30 2020, @04:29AM (#1014389) Journal

    Thanks for the links. The first several I read started off panning celebrity culture and how the coronavirus has exposed how shallow and irrelevant it is, only to finish by praising it and predicting it'll be back after the pandemic is over. In other words they start off by pandering to regular people to get them to read their stupid articles, then go right back to pandering to celebrities and the entertainment industry because regular people are...icky. And boring.

    Once upon a time actors and performers were considered very uncouth, very low class and irrelevant. It would do us all good to return to that sort of perspective for a good, long while. Let's have our amazing scientists, engineers, mathematicians, doctors, and adventurers go back to being our heroes like they were in the 50's. Let's have our kids come of age dreaming about how they can get the space elevator built, colonize Mars, and mine the asteroid belt.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Troll=1, Insightful=2, Total=3
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Tuesday June 30 2020, @04:55AM (2 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday June 30 2020, @04:55AM (#1014401) Journal

    Predicting that things will go back to normal is probably a safe bet. Never overestimate the public.

    The true decline of (traditional) celebrity culture is more of a generational change, and you don't get that during a single year... except for the fact that many older folks are dying sooner than expected.

    YouTube celebrities, SoundCloud rappers, Twitch body painters, etc. point to a new generation of aggrandized uncouth stars becoming popular. Except they have less of a filter and can connect to audiences directly, gather proportionally smaller but more rabid fanbases. There's also a number of "drama channels" surrounding the internet stars, fulfilling the same role as celeb tabloids or paparazzi.

    On the other hand, you have the idolization of people like Elon Musk, more enthusiasm about space exploration, and some scientists, engineers, mathematicians, doctors, etc. are out there gathering large 1M+ followings on the same social media platforms. They can grow their popularity over time rather than waiting for some gatekeeper to give them a TV show.

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 30 2020, @05:26AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 30 2020, @05:26AM (#1014407)

      I love your idealism, but then I look at politics. It's a reminder that people can easily be persuaded to believe (and like) whomever and whatever you want them to - it just takes the right sort of marketing.

      I suspect a similar issue for the perceived interest in science and technology types. Many of them do not really seem to be gaining popularity for their work or achievements but, in many cases in spite of such. Instead they're working as either entertainers or political actors who happen to be doing cool things. But because of this I don't see much changing there at all. And even worse, they'll be tossed by the wayside as soon as the masses see the next shiny thing. See: Musk being forced out of White House technological advisory committee because it left him too close to Trump. Probably didn't change much in the grand scheme of things, but it emphasizes how quick the mob can turn on you. If he'd stayed he'd likely have become pariahed. Pariahed for being a major voice in the national direction of science and technology? Yeah, that's social media retardation for you. He's just created an entirely fake, pandering, persona to take advantage of social media like many, if not all, of these people are doing.

      • (Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday June 30 2020, @12:59PM

        by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday June 30 2020, @12:59PM (#1014471) Journal

        If you think that was optimistic, you don't want to see my pessimistic posts.

        Trump is a walking unusual circumstance, at least for now. Musk leaving the council could be seen as a business decision. Or you could take Musk at his word that he disagreed with Trump over withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement.

        --
        [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]