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posted by martyb on Thursday October 22 2020, @05:13PM   Printer-friendly
from the Failed-to-reach-a-top...Quibile? dept.

Quibi is dead, reports say

Plagued with growth issues, Quibi, a short-form mobile-native video platform, is shutting down, according to multiple reports. The startup, co-founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, had raised nearly $2 billion in its lifetime as a private company. Quibi did not respond to requests for comment from TechCrunch.

The company's prolific fundraising efforts spanned prominent institutions in private equity, venture capital and Hollywood, all betting on Katzenberg's ability to deliver another hit. The startup's backers included Alibaba, Madrone Capital Partners, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, as well as Disney, Sony Pictures, Viacom, WarnerMedia and MGM, among others. The Information reports that Quibi will have $350 million left to return to shareholders.

Their pitch was highly produced bite-sized content, packed with Hollywood star power, and designed to be "mobile-first" entertainment. For the YouTubes and Snaps of the world, producing mainstream content on a shoestring budget, Quibi wanted to be an HBO for smartphones. Investors and pundits questioned the firm's ability to monetize this vision, and it became clear soon after launch that the company had miscalculated.

[...] Admitting that the launch hadn't gone as planned, Katzenberg blamed the coronavirus for the streaming app's challenges.

One problem with finding a buyer: Quibi doesn't even own most of its original "content":

Actually, Quibi doesn't own any of the big-budget premium content for which it has shelled out upwards of $100,000 per minute. The company has seven-year licenses on its short-form series; after two years, content owners have the right to assemble the shows and distribute them elsewhere.

An open letter to the employees, investors, and partners who believed in Quibi and made this business possible —

Also at The Verge, Business Insider, Ars Technica, and MarketWatch.

Previously: Meg Whitman-Run Streaming Service "Quibi" Launches, Reception Mixed
The Fall of Quibi: How Did a Starry $1.75bn Netflix Rival Crash So Fast?

Related: Fox Could Buy Tubi While NBCUniversal Eyes Vudu


Original Submission

Related Stories

Fox Could Buy Tubi While NBCUniversal Eyes Vudu 9 comments

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Fox is reportedly eyeing Tubi. [Editor's Note: Tubi is a streaming service.]

Tubi is available in the US, Canada and Australia on Android and iOS, as well as on devices such as Amazon Echo ShowGoogle Nest Hub MaxRoku and Apple TV. Content is also viewable at www.tubi.tv. The company plans to launch in more areas including the UK and Mexico in the coming year.

[...] As more streaming services such as Disney Plus and Apple TV Plus launch to compete with the likes of Netflix, several companies are also looking to free, ad-supported platforms aimed at customers who might not be willing to dish out more money for an ever-growing list of paid offerings.

Last year, it was reported that Walmart could be thinking of selling Vudu, a service that lets customers rent or purchase individual shows or movies. Vudu also launched a free, ad-supported service in 2016. 

Walmart reportedly purchased Vudu for around $100 million in 2010, and says the service is installed on more than 100 million devices in the US. It's not clear if there will be a deal between NBCUniversal and Vudu, people familiar with the matter told The Journal. A Walmart representative declined to comment, but said the company is "constantly having conversations with partners."


Original Submission

Meg Whitman-Run Streaming Service "Quibi" Launches, Reception Mixed 8 comments

Quibi Picked the Worst Time to Launch a Streaming Service for Short Attention Spans - Or maybe the best? (archive)

For months, Quibi, the phone-based streaming service that launched Monday, has been getting roasted by the small group of people whose professions require them to know about the existence of Quibi. The gist of the jokes has been that Quibi sounds like a 30 Rock fiction come to life. The brainchild of billionaire boomers Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, it's predicated on the idea that no one can pay attention any more, so if anything is going to lure the scattered, cellphone-obsessed youth away from the free and varied YouTube content with which they seem generally satisfied, it's high production values that you can't really see on a cellphone and the imprimatur of celebrities grandparents have heard of. Quibi has gone on a buying spree for every famous person in Hollywood's leftover ideas, which have been turned into "quick bites" of six to 10 minutes apiece. The company has already raised $1.75 billion dollars, on the strength of that idea and a slate that includes a reality show called Murder House Flip.

As someone who has not been above a Quibi joke herself, I am disappointed to report that Quibi is neither a glorious embarrassment nor a surprising triumph. It is, instead, expensively competent. The dozens of star-studded series it debuts with are, in general, solid and professional, and tend toward uplifting but brief documentaries I could totally imagine spacing out to in a waiting room. (The fact that almost no one on the planet Earth is spacing out in a waiting room right now is another Quibi punchline.) The implicit assumption of Quibi is that no one has any time anymore, even, say, for a 22-minute sitcom. And yet it is arriving at a moment when a majority of Americans have more time than they had weeks ago—if also, perhaps, even more shredded attention spans.

Quibi review – shortform sub-Netflix shows aren't long for this world

The Fall of Quibi: How Did a Starry $1.75bn Netflix Rival Crash So Fast? 29 comments

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

Roku Pecks at Quibi's Remains 3 comments

Roku In Talks To Acquire Rights To Quibi's Library – Report

According to the Wall Street Journal, Roku is nearing a deal to buy the content catalog of Quibi, the short-form mobile streaming platform launched by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman that launched in April 2020 before shuttering in December.

The WSJ reports that Roku would acquire the rights to Quibi's content but the specific details and financial terms of the proposed deal haven't been revealed and the deal could still fall through.

Also at The Verge and The Wrap:

Quibi's deals with its content producers were atypical of other platforms, in that the creators owned their stuff. Quibi's deals allowed for the service to feature those shows on its service for seven years. The WSJ, citing people familiar with the discussions, added that some of the contracts stipulate that the content cannot air on other platforms. However, an individual familiar with Roku's stance argued that it would not prevent Roku from being able to stream the content, the report added.

Roku content includes series like Anna Kendrick's "Dummy," "Most Dangerous Game" starring Liam Hemsworth and Christoph Waltz, as well as Antoine Fuqua's "#FreeRayshawn," which scored a pair of Emmy wins.

Maybe Quibi's carcass will spawn an entertaining short-form lawsuit.

Previously: Meg Whitman-Run Streaming Service "Quibi" Launches, Reception Mixed
The Fall of Quibi: How Did a Starry $1.75bn Netflix Rival Crash So Fast?
Founder Jeffrey Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman Announce Impending Death of "Quibi" Streaming Service

Related: Roku Media Player Maker Seeking IPO


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by EJ on Thursday October 22 2020, @05:44PM (3 children)

    by EJ (2452) on Thursday October 22 2020, @05:44PM (#1067590)

    This story has brought so much joy to me in an otherwise very sad year.

    Stupid ideas should be stomped, doused in accelerant, and killed with fire.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by VLM on Thursday October 22 2020, @05:53PM (2 children)

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Thursday October 22 2020, @05:53PM (#1067597)

      Ironically, people flock to view that kind of viral video online; just not on the quibi platform (ziiiiiiinnnggg)

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by EJ on Thursday October 22 2020, @06:28PM (1 child)

        by EJ (2452) on Thursday October 22 2020, @06:28PM (#1067614)

        Quibi tried to normalize the use of vertical video. For that reason alone, everyone involved in the service should be incarcerated.

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Friday October 23 2020, @12:47AM

          by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Friday October 23 2020, @12:47AM (#1067748) Homepage
          Nonsense! If it encourages people to be watching vids on their smartphone whilst crossing roads, then I'm prepared to encourage it.
          --
          Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by fadrian on Thursday October 22 2020, @05:50PM (8 children)

    by fadrian (3194) on Thursday October 22 2020, @05:50PM (#1067594) Homepage

    Plagued with growth issues...

    Probably a lack thereof, in reality.

    Katzenberg blamed the coronavirus for the streaming app's challenges.

    When every other streaming platform was exploding? Right...

    Maybe Meg should have brought Carly Fiorina and Elizabeth Holmes on to help her out.

    --
    That is all.
    • (Score: 1, Troll) by VLM on Thursday October 22 2020, @06:00PM (4 children)

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Thursday October 22 2020, @06:00PM (#1067602)

      Maybe Meg should have brought Carly Fiorina and Elizabeth Holmes on to help her out.

      She took ebay from 0 to $8B, then took HP from about $130B down to about $110B, so net negative on the long term. But she was the best diversity hire out there, so ...

      • (Score: 5, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday October 22 2020, @09:15PM (2 children)

        by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Thursday October 22 2020, @09:15PM (#1067677)

        Meg Whitman is about as far from being a diversity hire as it is possible to be.

        What she is, is a member of the ruling class, which is what she was born into.

        Ebay was successful despite her, and every other job she has had has allowed her to continue to fail upwards. That is what happens to the children of money.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 22 2020, @10:50PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 22 2020, @10:50PM (#1067715)

          There's a simple problem. "Meg" is not short for "Margaret," it's short for "Megan" (and other spellings) Everything else follows from that.

        • (Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday October 25 2020, @05:48PM

          by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Sunday October 25 2020, @05:48PM (#1068580)

          Roger that, if 95% of CEOs are male, then a woman CEO is not a diversity hire.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by bobmorning on Friday October 23 2020, @02:55PM

        by bobmorning (6045) on Friday October 23 2020, @02:55PM (#1067900)

        Ex- HPES person here. Meg is Satan reincarnated. She sold all the HP software crown jewels (Fortify, ArcSight, etc) quarter after quarter to meet her Wall St numbers so she could pocket her performance based bonuses.

        HPES is a shell of what it was once. A shame, but this is emblematic of the American CEO mindset today. I left before the ship sank, sadly others held on to the end...it didn't end well for many of them.

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday October 22 2020, @08:49PM (2 children)

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday October 22 2020, @08:49PM (#1067669) Journal

      Katzenberg blamed the coronavirus for the streaming app's challenges.

      When every other streaming platform was exploding? Right...

      Wasn't there a brief moment where it didn't even work on TVs properly, because it was a smartphone-oriented service?

      And much of the content was "short form". Nothing to "binge".

      They will blame the virus to their last breathe.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Thursday October 22 2020, @09:48PM (1 child)

        by ElizabethGreene (6748) Subscriber Badge on Thursday October 22 2020, @09:48PM (#1067687) Journal

        It wasn't brief; the service only works on mobile devices. No TVs or PCs.

        • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday October 22 2020, @09:59PM

          by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday October 22 2020, @09:59PM (#1067695) Journal

          I thought I had heard about it being updated to work on TVs within the first month of launch. But there's this:

          Quibi Lands on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Google TV — but It’s Probably Too Little, Too Late [variety.com]

          The Quibi apps for Apple TV, Fire TV and Google TV/Android TV (including on the recently launched Chromecast, which now includes a remote) launched on Monday (Oct. 19). All of the content on Quibi’s TV apps is displayed in landscape format, whereas the mobile app uses a feature called Turnstyle (which is the subject of ongoing litigation) to toggle between vertical and landscape mode.

          “Love our mobile app? Great news! We’ve taken all the awesome Quibi content and made it available on your TV,” Quibi says in an update on its customer-support site. Earlier this summer, Quibi added support for Apple’s AirPlay (to let users launch streams on Apple TV boxes and other compatible devices from mobile apps) and Google’s Chromecast and Chromecast-integrated TVs.

          So you could "cast" it from the phone to TV. But they only added native TV apps 3 days ago!

          --
          [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
  • (Score: 2, Troll) by VLM on Thursday October 22 2020, @05:51PM (3 children)

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Thursday October 22 2020, @05:51PM (#1067595)

    quibi is what (((Hollywood))) told us we wanted, but as usual nobody wanted what they told us to want.

    tiktok is the same thing as quibi but with better content, mostly naked hot amateur women.

    From what I saw the content on quibi was beyond cringe, like the crappiest ads on a daytime cable TV channel, but, somehow, worse. The kind of stuff nobody watches anymore so the budget was slashed until nobody tunes in except coma patients in the hospital. And the quibi people accidentally thought that was a real market LOL.

    Quibi also closed/DRMed the heck out of everything, screenshots are a blank page. The (((hollywood))) people don't understand the best advertising for tiktok was "hot" screenshots of tiktok uploaded everywhere.

    Its astounding how much money they were asking for subscription to quibi given the content.

    It didn't do anything anyone wanted, and couldn't convince anyone that what it did was desirable. It was like a late night infomercial merged with mobile app development. I'd rather have a pocket sized folding fishing rod than a quibi. Or a thighmaster, snuggie, or slap-chop, or a gadget combining all in one. At least the ShakeWeight provided videos of women that guys actually wanted to see, unlike quibi. Yeah the world needs ShakeWeights about a thousand times more than it needs quibi.

    Overall, a pretty good sign we're in bubble poppin territory. How exactly did "veg out brainlessly on your phone" fail during a world wide pandemic of bored people? The collapse would have been absolutely unimaginable under better conditions.

    So yeah I been laughing at this one for awhile, waiting for the inevitable obituary to make some laughs above. This cycle needs a "fuckedcompany.com" like at the turn of the century.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 22 2020, @07:17PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 22 2020, @07:17PM (#1067637)

      What's with the air quotes?

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 22 2020, @06:13PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 22 2020, @06:13PM (#1067610)

    It's just too hard to compete with "worst ladder"

  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 22 2020, @06:30PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 22 2020, @06:30PM (#1067615)

    That Whitman is pure gold. I can't wait to see what company trips over themselves to hire this dumpster fire next.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by GlennC on Thursday October 22 2020, @07:43PM (1 child)

    by GlennC (3656) on Thursday October 22 2020, @07:43PM (#1067643)

    Go ahead and mod me "Redundant."

    --
    Sorry folks...the world is bigger and more varied than you want it to be. Deal with it.
    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 23 2020, @10:31AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 23 2020, @10:31AM (#1067833)

      You're not redundant. Quibi, however, was.

  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 22 2020, @07:44PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 22 2020, @07:44PM (#1067645)

    I have a service idea too! And i want 2 billions ( i mean 200b) for it also, and i promise to give back three fiddy.

    Ok, so the idea is that it's a sound platform and you can supply your sound content there, BUT it's limited to Mariah Carey level high notes only. You have to install an app obviously and it will DRM the shit out of your phone. It'll write itself so deep in the electronics that you can't get rid of it even by physically decapping the MCU.

    Ok, listen up! The line start from here. Get ready to give me all your moula!

    Ps. I will own all your content, even the stuff you've not send to the service and will create in the future.

  • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday October 22 2020, @09:25PM

    by Thexalon (636) on Thursday October 22 2020, @09:25PM (#1067681)

    This combined the worst parts of curated broadcast video (some nameless faceless suits decide what you can and can't see, when you can see it, how you can see it, and how much it's going to cost you) with the worst parts of web video (often too short to be worth seeing).

    But investors often go for stupid ideas from well-connected people.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 23 2020, @05:31PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 23 2020, @05:31PM (#1067963)

    Not the first company she's ruined, don't understand why they hire her.

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