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Television Media Entertainment

Quibi Is Shutting Down (wsj.com) 60

Quibi is considering shutting itself down, WSJ reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter, a move that points to a possible crash landing for a once-highflying entertainment startup that raised $1.75 billion in capital. From the report: The streaming service has been plagued with problems since it launched in April, facing lower-than-expected viewership, disappointing download numbers and a lawsuit from a well-capitalized foe. The service is aimed at mobile viewers, but the coronavirus pandemic forced would-be subscribers away from the kinds of on-the-go situations Quibi executives envisioned for its users. Quibi attracted blue-chip advertisers including Pepsi, Walmart and Anheuser-Busch, securing about $150 million in ad revenue in the run-up to its launch. Those deals came under strain earlier this year amid lower-than-expected viewership for Quibi's shows, prompting advertisers to defer their payments. In recent weeks, Quibi hired a restructuring firm to evaluate its options, the people said. The firm recommended the options to the board of directors this week, laying out a list of options that included shutting the company down. Update: 10/21 19:44 GMT: The Information is reporting that Quibi has decided to shut down. From the report: The closure is a stunning end to Katzenberg's hopes of creating a new category of video entertainment, short programs of a few minutes in length that could be watched on the go. Katzenberg, a former Disney executive who later helped start DreamWorks, raised nearly $2 billion to finance Quibi. Among the backers were most of the major Hollywood studios, Google, Alibaba and the Madrone Capital Partners. Quibi scheduled calls with investors and employees on Wednesday afternoon to deliver the news.
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Quibi Is Shutting Down

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  • by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Wednesday October 21, 2020 @02:01PM (#60632490)

    The service is aimed at mobile viewers, but the coronavirus pandemic forced would-be subscribers away from the kinds of on-the-go situations Quibi executives envisioned for its users.

    This lie keeps being repeated; I wish they would stop making excuses for a bad idea by blaming it on people being at home more.

    A) If the service were compelling, why would people not want to watch at home between chores or after meals, or as a small break from work?

    B) In fact people are still by and large on-the-go, or has whoever wrote this not tried to drive anywhere lately? Plenty of people are out and about. More than enough to support the company - if anyone wanted to use it, which they do not.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by curtis3389 ( 5534388 )

      Agreed. Half the time I'm streaming something, it's to a small device in the kitchen while cooking or in the shower.
      The other half is to a console attached to TV.

      It looks like a content problem to me.
      The only thing worth watching on Quibi looks to be Reno 911. Everything else is just a bunch of garbage shows.
      They need shows and movies people know and love to bring them to the platform.

      • Yeah , I know someone that subscribed and the content sucked .. I lots watch lots of stuff on my phone .. much of the time it's 10-15 min at a clip .. fire up netflix watch .. pause and then next time resume where I left off .. difference is Netflix has stuff I want to watch ... The service's content sucked ... that was the problem... COVID had literally nothing to do with it. We would be having the same discussion if COVID never happened. The 'genius' CEO would have find a another scapeg

        • They copied YouTube and you canâ(TM)t beat free. Now, if only Google would bring back the fucking swearing.
        • The service's content sucked ... that was the problem...

          Maybe. Reno 911 was good but I have no clue what else might have been there because the stupid mobile-only platform was one I was never going to subscribe to.

          • The service's content sucked ... that was the problem...

            Maybe. Reno 911 was good but I have no clue what else might have been there because the stupid mobile-only platform was one I was never going to subscribe to.

            Wait, it was mobile ONLY?
            That's even dumber than I thought. Why would I pay for streaming that wouldn't also let me use my TV or computer?

        • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

          It was never about content, that is not why they invested billions. It was all about 50% content and 50% advertisements and much of that so called content, actually advertisements and that was what was sold to the psychopathically greedy and they could not resist. A near continuous advertisement service that gullible idiots would want to watch, suckers. Only very few did and it died. They tried to take the YouTube model one step further and failed, because YouTube is already suffering for trying to do the s

          • I opened a video on YouTube yesterday, and it was 11 minutes long. Two ads before it started. Then two more about a minute or two in. Craziness! Then another around six minutes. I closed it.

            On my machine at home, I have ads blocked. I didn't realize how bad it had gotten without ad blocking.

        • He is a genius, the guy probably made a shitload of money out of this till he got fired
    • by nwf ( 25607 ) on Wednesday October 21, 2020 @02:10PM (#60632524)

      I was going to say the same thing. COVID had literally nothing to do with the failure of this service.

      It was a totally stupid idea by people who have no concept of what younger people want and no idea what makes things popular. This was an exercise at throwing away money. Many, many people stated this when it was announced. The fact that they got $1.75B for an obviously stupid idea should cause everyone to reevaluate how they pick ideas to fund, since this was 100% hype and no actual hope of success. They believe their own lies, which must have been very compelling likely ending with "Profit!!"

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        This was an exercise at throwing away money.

        No, this was an exercise in stealing money.

        Take a couple billion from investors
        Skim off some for yourself
        . . .
        Profit!!

      • No, this was money laundering.

      • Totally agree here. Their 'innovation' was not proprietary. If the concept proved lucrative, there would be nothing stopping YouTube from duplicating the success. Startups are sustainable if they have either a proprietary property or have gathered a critical mass of (free) subscribers or have some kind of disruptive effect (might not be sustainable).

        Quibi showed up with fees preventing critical mass of subscribers from joining, lacked a disruptive feature, and could easily have been mimicked by any other p
    • by Nidi62 ( 1525137 ) on Wednesday October 21, 2020 @02:23PM (#60632584)

      The service is aimed at mobile viewers, but the coronavirus pandemic forced would-be subscribers away from the kinds of on-the-go situations Quibi executives envisioned for its users.

      This lie keeps being repeated; I wish they would stop making excuses for a bad idea by blaming it on people being at home more.

      A) If the service were compelling, why would people not want to watch at home between chores or after meals, or as a small break from work?

      B) In fact people are still by and large on-the-go, or has whoever wrote this not tried to drive anywhere lately? Plenty of people are out and about. More than enough to support the company - if anyone wanted to use it, which they do not.

      The fact that short video services like TikTok and (to a lesser extent) Youtube are still doing pretty well with the pandemic also argues that the short video format is popular. It could just be that Quibi sucks.

      • The fact that short video services like TikTok

        I had thought of YouTube but I didn't think of TikTok in particular but that is the perfect example, since it's almost always very short form content where lots of YouTube videos can be longer than 10 min.

        As you say TikTok is doing great so people being at home should be no limit to Quibi.

        • by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

          The fact that short video services like TikTok

          I had thought of YouTube but I didn't think of TikTok in particular but that is the perfect example, since it's almost always very short form content where lots of YouTube videos can be longer than 10 min.

          As you say TikTok is doing great so people being at home should be no limit to Quibi.

          Yeah, my wife'll sit at home on her phone for an hour or 2, just scrolling through tiktok, especially before bed. Seems like that would be a perfect target for a short 5-10 minute video service.

        • Tiktok killed Quibi. As simple as that.

          Why cater to a 10-minute attention span when people have less of an attention span than a goldfish?

          Same thing that makes Twitter so popular.

          • by Junta ( 36770 )

            Quibi thought people would pay $4.99/month for something they can pretty much get for free or get better from another paid provider.

          • >Why cater to a 10-minute attention span when people have less of an attention span than a goldfish?

            It's true. TikTok has diminished my attenti

      • by _xeno_ ( 155264 )

        The fact that short video services like TikTok and (to a lesser extent) Youtube are still doing pretty well

        Here's the other thing that doesn't get brought up enough: Quibi's "short form" videos are more like YouTube videos in that they're 7-10 minutes in length. TikTok's videos are pretty much all seconds to maybe a minute.

        7-10 minutes is not a "short video" that you watch on your phone. 7-10 minutes is a short YouTube video you watch on your laptop. Can you imagine trying to hold your phone in front of your face for 7 minutes straight? Why would you do that? Why would you want to do that? (And if you're not doi

    • by spun ( 1352 )

      We don't agree on much SuperKendall but we sure agree on this. Dumb idea from the git-go and the failure has nothing to do with the pandemic.

    • The service is aimed at mobile viewers, but the coronavirus pandemic forced would-be subscribers away from the kinds of on-the-go situations Quibi executives envisioned for its users.

      This lie keeps being repeated; I wish they would stop making excuses for a bad idea by blaming it on people being at home more.

      A) If the service were compelling, why would people not want to watch at home between chores or after meals, or as a small break from work?

      B) In fact people are still by and large on-the-go, or has whoever wrote this not tried to drive anywhere lately? Plenty of people are out and about. More than enough to support the company - if anyone wanted to use it, which they do not.

      Sure it's a lie, noone wanted to use it, that's it !

  • As for content
    legends of the hidden temple reboot is likely dead / not even made.

    The Fugitive time format sucks for it.

    • by fermion ( 181285 )
      Almost every new service has some kind of limitation to maximize ads or limit competition with existing products. Many apps do not have PIP. YouTube canâ(TM)t even go full screen half the time. Or stream audio to speakers.

      The death of this service is that it attacked its most ardent users, the ones who generated content to promote the service. They were sued and became enemies.

    • I liked the fugitive remake. That said, I downloaded it and watched on a TV with a program that autostarted the next episode.

      I can't imagine watching an action series like this on a phone.

  • They just released their app for Apple TV today. But all signs point to them shutting down, as it seems no one is interested in buying them.
  • The next step (Score:5, Insightful)

    by clovis ( 4684 ) on Wednesday October 21, 2020 @02:25PM (#60632594)

    The next step is to borrow $100 million to give out as executive retention bonuses to help manage the transition.

    • by lengel ( 519399 )

      Yeah they already paid probably tens of millions of dollars to a consulting firm to come in and state the obvious "you are circling the drain"

  • No one could have anticipated this crash and burn. Certainly not from the initial pitch.

    On the positive side-- they've outlasted the Microsoft Kin by orders of magnitude.

  • by QBasicer ( 781745 ) on Wednesday October 21, 2020 @02:31PM (#60632618) Homepage Journal
    Other than for live sports, I'm not sure why anyone would actually want to watch the garbage that gets pumped out by these studios. Secondly, I don't know why people pay for services that show them ads. If I'm paying for it, I don't want ads! That's the best thing about Youtube Premium.
    • You're not sure why people would watch stuff that gets pumped out by: The Walt Disney Company, 21st Century Fox, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures, Time Warner, Viacom, eOne, Lionsgate, or MGM?

      Why not just come out and say that you don't understand people in the slightest?

      • You're not sure why people would watch stuff that gets pumped out by: The Walt Disney Company, 21st Century Fox, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures, Time Warner, Viacom, eOne, Lionsgate, or MGM?

        Why not just come out and say that you don't understand people in the slightest?

        I don't understand people in the slightest. TV shows are all pure trash now, and I have no interest in sports.

  • I liked (in alphabetical order):
    #FreeRayshawn
    Die Hart
    Don't Look Deeper
    Dummy
    Flipped
    Hello America
    Mapleworth Murders
    Memory Hole
    Nice One!
    Thanks A Million
    The Fugitive
    Wireless

    Each season amounts to about a single episode of normal TV, and it was a 2 week free trial. I knocked out 13 "episodes", or all of those "seasons" in that time.

    Taking it at their no-ads price of $14.99, I wouldn't think it would be worth it unless there was at least 4-6 new "seasons" each month that I wanted to watch... and even

    • My wife paid for one month but only because she forgot to cancel during the free trial.

      I wonder what Apple TV+ numbers will look like once people actually have to pay. I was about to cancel but then they extended the trial.

      • My wife paid for one month but only because she forgot to cancel during the free trial.

        I wonder if she lied, you don't have to give your credit card until you sign up for the paid plan :-P

    • The tech is simply two sensors - one recording in portrait, one in landscape. Use a prism to split the light from the single lens.

      So obvious it's not even patentable, and with prior art.

      • No, nothing like that. I'm usually pretty skeptical of technology. If I hadn't seen it for myself I'd probably be talking trash on it too. But with my expert eye, as a technologist, it's worth something. Even if it used publicly available off the shelf open source software to do the deetz (it probably doesn't), just as a production/post-production business technology, it's worth something substantial. (ironic since their business economics don't work out, but presumably that's someone else's job)
      • You don't need two sensors to crop one big square into two smaller rectangles.

  • With no black bars around the borders of the pages!
  • they were ever viable in the long term. Maybe they were just a Straw Company trying to lure in a big buyer with tons of cash from the start.
  • Will the content be sold to others?

    • Yep... this seems to be a cash bankruptcy with plenty of IP assets. Seems like the shows will be returned to the producers, and some other site will set up with a more viable model.

    • Yeah, this is the only part that matters. Quibi's death is no surprise, but I heard that some of their shows were well produced.

      I'm getting my information second hand, and I don't care enough to verify this, but I was told that Quibi paid for its shows under a two-year exclusivity license rather than permanent owership. And that Quibi tried to sell rights to Amazon / Netflix / etc., but were turned down. Meaning that the rights will be auctioned off in bankruptcy, and even if no one buys them then the sh
  • With that kind of track record.... maybe a Presidential run in 2024?
  • The content itself was ok, the problem was the size of the episodes, it was so f-ing annoying to watch a show on Quibi with every 7 minutes or so a 'to be continued' and having it start again with an intro.. If they would have just (also) shown the episodes in normal sizes it could have survived.. But now I just hope they dump the content on Netflix or Prime and recut them into normal episodes..
    • What this really means is that none of the producers made something to fit the format. They produced the same old thing and chopped it into pieces. It was a terrible format, but if Netflix picked up streaming rights I might watch a handful. A lot of money got blown on it, so there's bound to be a few good pieces.

      • What this really means is that none of the producers made something to fit the format.

        Actually most of them did. The only one I saw that didn't really fit was The Fugitive. They chopped that one up about the same as circa 2005 broadcast/cable TV, with commercials every 8 minutes, BUT with only 15 second commercials rather than the usual 2-5 minutes on broadcast/cable tv. Oh, and only 1 episode a season. :-P

  • Their advertising was to use a bunch of random made up words and it didn't even try to pitch the product idea.

    At the time I was wondering how long they can actually burn through money before they shut down. Even better, no one will actually know what they are trying to sale until after those doors are closed.

    Now, I know what their product was and I'm not surprised it was doomed.

  • Quibi?

    More like Quiti!

  • When was the last time you heard of a kickass tech product being launched into a competitive market... by founders that are 63 and 69?

    Quibi may as well have had "how do you do fellow kids" as a tagline.

  • Which, honestly, makes a nice change.

  • Good riddance, we hardly knew ye!

  • Crossing out "find out what Quibi is"

CChheecckk yyoouurr dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh..

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