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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


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  • (Score: 2) by stretch611 on Tuesday June 30 2020, @05:52AM

    by stretch611 (6199) on Tuesday June 30 2020, @05:52AM (#1014414)

    This had no chance of success...

    You have founders that consider their contribution to be worth billions... after all, in their mind they have billions now and think they are worth it and will not work for less.

    You have talent that thinks that they are worth millions.

    The pandemic probably gave them a better chance then they would have had at any other time... People want things to do when they are all stuck at home.

    However, the people really need jobs... they are not willing to start a new subscription service when their finances are uncertain. Plus they have plenty of other things to compete with... OTA(Antenna) tv, cable tv, facebook, internet surfing, youtube and countless other competitors, even steam and computer games.

    Plus all the high end talent desires high end pay... I can not see this service being cheap while providing much content at the same time.

    --
    Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
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