You’ve probably seen an ad promoting a new streaming service known as Quibi on Facebook, YouTube or any other website. Quibi — a portmanteau for “quick bite” — is aiming to revolutionize how we consume online entertainment through short form video clips specifically for mobile devices.
Quibi was founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg, American film producer and former chairman of Walt Disney Studios, and the concept is straightforward. Once the user downloads the app on the Goggle Play Store or the Apple App Store, they are given an option to start a 90-day free trial. Once the 90-day free trial has expired, the user will begin a $4.99 monthly plan with ads, or a $7.99 monthly plan without ads.
The streaming service is in its infancy stage since its launch April 6 and the unique aspect of the streaming service is its short film shows. Movies and films are broken up into segments between seven to 10 minutes long and have various entertainment content such as thrillers, music, food and fashion.
According to Indiewire, Quibi was downloaded by 1.7 million users in its first week of service.
Quibi is also convenient in the viewing experience since viewers can watch the content in portrait or landscape orientation.
Katzenberg and Quibi Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman have sold $100 million in upfront ad inventory to advertisers such as Google and Walmart, according to Variety. The financial efforts have been quite visible with ads appearing r on various media platforms.
The company also plans to spend $1.1 billion on commissioning original content in the first year of service with 8,500 short-filmed videos and over 175 shows.
A popular TV show on the streaming service is “The Most Dangerous Game” starring Liam Hemsworth and Christopher Waltz, which has an 8.1/10-star rating on IMDB. Action-packed is one way to describe the scenes in the series where the main character battles through a serious situation with deadly consequences.
Other popular original content includes “Chrissy Court,” which is a “Judge Judy” esque show, starring supermodel Chrissy Teigen as judge in small claim cases and her mother Vilailuck Teigen maintains order in the courtroom.
A nonscripted show that is gaining popularity on Quibi is the rebooted popular hidden-camera pranking show “Punk’d,” which features Chance the Rapper. The TV show first rose to prominence in the early 2000s and was produced and hosted by actor Ashton Kutcher.
Controversy has arisen through the success of the service due to a lawsuit issued by interactive video developer Ecko on the allegation that Quibi stole Ecko’s technology after Ecko demoed the concept of portrait and landscape orientation viewing options to Quibi.
Overall, Quibi is a unique viewership experience in the short-filmed route of viewing a film or a TV show and having to move on to a new episode every 10 minutes may cause a headache or be unappealing to some viewers. The streaming service offers a unique experience in binge-watching shows, which is something many people are doing now and provides a gateway to get your mind off the current issues at hand.
Isaiah Ramirez may be reached at p[email protected]
