You would think that 2020 would be the year that all streaming services would thrive. This of course due to the fact that the majority of the country had been stuck at home. Not to mention the fact that theaters shut down. Many of which still haven’t been able to open. Unfortunately, there is one casualty in the streaming world, one that had just been launched six months ago!
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Quibi will be shutting down. In a public letter, executives Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman said that “It is with an incredibly heavy heart that today we are announcing that we are winding down the business and looking to sell it’s content and technology assets.” They also mentioned that they would be looking to return money to shareholders, layoff employees, and sell off assets. They had been struggling now for six months to bring in subscribers. “Our failure was not for lack of trying; we’ve considered and exhausted every option available to us”, they continued in the letter.
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Quibi had convinced many that it was a good idea, as it was able to raise almost $2 billion. Unfortunately, its April launch was overshadowed by the early days of the Coronavirus pandemic. The streaming service that was meant to be enjoyed on the go, had the bad luck that people weren’t going anywhere. Also, there is the fact that during that time, people didn’t want to add another streaming service to their monthly bill. It featured over one hundred original series. Several that were nominated for short-form Emmy awards. The series #FreeRayshawn earned two awards this past September.
Quibi had been evaluating its options for many weeks now. They had even talked about a possible sale. Despite the fact that they still had hundreds of millions in the bank, Katzenberg and Whitman did not see a long-term solution for the streaming service. The move came as a surprise to many inside and outside the company as they claim that until the announcement it was business as usual.
In the letter, they also talk about the possible reasons for the failure of Quibi, “Because the idea itself wasn’t strong enough to justify a stand-alone streaming service or because of our timing. Unfortunately, we will never know, but we suspect it’s been a combination of the two.” I had a chance to try out Quibi and while some shorts were enjoyable, it did not justify paying for it. It makes me wonder how many more people would have actually picked it up if everything was business as usual. I think that it would be better as a complimentary service for an established streaming service. We’ll see if something like this happens.
Did you ever try Quibi? Let us know in the comment section below!
Source: The Hollywood Reporter