About

Quibi is an American short-form video streaming service set to launch in 2020. The service is said to distinguish itself from competitors like Netflix or Disney+ by focusing on series that are shorter in runtime, or "quick bites," which is how the name came to be.

History

On October 10th, 2018, Deadline^[1] reported that Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman had announced the name of an upcoming video streaming service: Quibi, which is short for "quick bites." Additionally, they announced that the company had already attracted various Hollywood successes, such as "filmmakers Sam Raimi, Guillermo del Toro and Antoine Fuqua and noted producer Jason Blum." At the time of the report, Quibi had already "secured an initial round of $1 billion" from investors. Those backers include "Disney, Fox, Sony, Lionsgate, MGM, NBCU, Viacom, WarnerMedia" and more, according to Variety.^[4]

Meg Whitman said of their early success: "Really, this allows us to launch our vision of bringing together the best of Hollywood and Silicon Valley."

The following year, on March 9th, 2019, Katzenberg and Whitman discussed the launch on NBC, explaining what platform is (shown below).

Features

The application is slated for release in April 2020. As of now, all that is publicly known about the service is that it will specialize in short-form content. These will be broken down into various types of shows, such as "Quick Bites" and "Daily Essentials." The app has been specifically designed for mobile devices, so the features on the service are optimized for phones and tables. Each video will have a runtime of 10-minutes or less.^[3]

Additionally, the service has attracted various Hollywood stars, such as Steven Spielberg, Kevin Hart, Jennifer Lopez, Naomi Watts, Chrissy Teigen, Idris Elba and more.^[2]

External References