Quibi to Launch with 50 Shows on April 6th

One month from now, Quibi (which stands for "quick bites") will launch its short-form video service that will allow users to watch on their phone. Content will include movies in chapters (i.e. longer, scripted stories broken into 7-10 minute long chapters) as well as unscripted shows, documentaries, and daily doses of news and entertainment.

The company, which is being led by longtime Hollywood exec Jeffrey Katzenberg along with former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, just announced that there will be 50 shows live at launch and that it plans to release a total of 8.5K episodes across 175 shows in its first year.

With Quibi's "Turnstyle" technology, viewers will be able to switch seamlessly between watching these short-form videos in both portrait and landscape mode. Moreover, some shows are actually being designed to offer different but complementary viewing experiences in different viewing modes.

The service will cost $4.99 per month with ads or $7.99 per month to have without ads. If a consumer signs up on the Quibi website before the launch on April 6th, a 90-day free trial can be unlocked.

It will be interesting to see if Quibi will be able to realize users' appetite for mobile video viewing or if it will go the way of Verizon's mobile streaming service Go90, which shut down in July 2018. As an article on emarketer notes, TVs are the go-to-streaming device for most users (with a Feb 2019 study showing 63% preference among respondents).

Moreover, I'm curious to see how short form video will be received in the golden age of television when users have so much content at their fingertips (e.g. Hulu, Netflix, Disney+, etc.). Outside of TV, potential consumers also of course have Youtube as a free option (granted, with ads). Will consumers actually pay $4.99 per month for a short-form video service that has ads?  I personally don't think that is a viable option and believe consumers that chose Quibi, will pay the extra $3 per month to choose an ad-free service if they decide that they want this content. Clearly, Quibi feels that there must be enough value in that lower tiered option to even offer it and it seems advertisers may agree as a recent article by AdAge revealed Quibi has already lined up $150 million in ads for its first year.

https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/06/quibi-launch-lineup/

https://www.emarketer.com/content/most-video-streaming-happens-on-tv-sets

https://adage.com/article/special-report-ces/quibi-demonstrates-how-advertisers-can-shoot-ads-both-vertical-and-horizontal-formats/2225836