Staff Reporter | On 22, Oct 2020

Quibi is officially closing its doors, barely six months after it first launched.

Short for “Quick Bites”, the streaming platform delivers programmes and films in short chunks of 5 to 10 minutes each, designed to be watched on mobile phones on the go. It launched unannounced in the spring of this year, but has since struggled to gain purchase in a crowded, competitive streaming landscape.

A month after its launch, the mobile-only platform backtracked on its signature proposition and introduce the ability to cast content to TVs – a sign of how challenging an environment it was. Quibi has blamed the coronavirus pandemic for its difficulties, as the launch occurred just as people went into lockdown, leaving them without the mobile-friendly window of commuting and travelling about to digest Quibi content – although YouTube, TikTok and other short-form platforms have had no trouble in engaging users.

Last month, we reported that Quibi was exploring its options for its future, including selling up. Now, Quibi has confirmed that it will “wind down its business operations and initiative a process to sell its assets”.

“Our failure was not for lack of trying,” founder Jeffrey Katzenberg and Chief Executive Meg Whitman wrote in an open letter. “We’ve considered and exhausted every option available to us.”

The decision comes as the company continued to fall far short of its intended subscriber forecasts, despite heavy spending on star-studded original programming, from a thriller starring Christoph Waltz and Liam Hemsworth to a romantic comedy with Anna Kendrick, not to mention a horror series from Sam Raimi, a cooking show hosted by Tituss Burgess, a survival drama starring Tye Sheridan and police drama #FreeRayShawn, which won 2 Emmys just a few weeks ago.

Katzenberg and Whitman admitted that either the idea behind Quibi “wasn’t strong enough to justify a standalone streaming service” or the timing of launching the service during the pandemic was fatal.

“Unfortunately, we will never know but we suspect it’s been a combination of the two.”

The move will mean its 200 employees will be out of work, and its other projects in the pipeline will also be stuck in limbo. The WSJ reports that employees will be paid a severance, while the company will look at selling the rights to its content to other broadcasters and streamers, as it tries to pay back the studios, investors and tech firms that invested in the platform – although Facebook, Apple and NBCUniversal have all reportedly passed on proposals.

 

Struggling Quibi explores its options

22nd September 2020

Quibi is reportedly considering a possible sale, as it explores a number of strategic options for its future.

Short for “Quick Bites”, the streaming platform delivers programmes and films in short chunks of 5 to 10 minutes each, designed to be watched on mobile phones on the go. It launched unannounced in the spring of this year, but has since struggled to gain purchase in a crowded, competitive streaming landscape.

A month after its launch, the mobile-only platform backtracked on its signature proposition and introduce the ability to cast content to TVs – a sign of how challenging an environment it was. Quibi has blamed the coronavirus pandemic for its difficulties, as the launch occurred just as people went into lockdown, leaving them without the mobile-friendly window of commuting and travelling about to digest Quibi content – although TikTok, a similarly mobile-centric platform, has found no trouble in engaging users.

With the company reportedly behind pace for its subscriber targets, and with a patent lawsuit filed earlier this year over Quibi’s “Turnstyle” feature (which allows viewers to watch different video streams by reorienting their phone), times have been tough for what was hoped by founders Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman to be a major disruptive player.

Now, the Wall Street Journal reports that the company may even consider the ideal of selling up, as it navigates its way through the tricky months to come. Other possibilities include raising more money or going public “through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company”.

The report comes just as Quibi struck gold with two Emmy awards for Laurence Fishburne and Jasmine Cephas Jones, who starred in its drama #FreeRayShawn.

A spokesperson for the company declined to comment on the WSJ report, telling the publication: “Quibi has successfully launched a new business and pioneered a new form of storytelling and state-of-the-art platform.”

They added that Katzenberg and Whitman remain “committed to continuing to build the business in the way that gives the greatest experience for customers, greatest value for shareholders and greatest opportunity for employees”.

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