Quibi | The Verge

Quibi’s epic fall and the future of books

2024-08-06T10:02:13-04:00

The Quibi story is both short and epic. In January 2020, company founder Jeffrey Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman were onstage at CES delivering an hour-long presentation on how they were about to upend the entertainment business. They'd developed new tech, signed up seemingly half the stars in Hollywood, and had raised more than a billion dollars to pull it off. By October, it was all over. Quibi was shutting down.

On this episode of The Vergecast, we're once again trying out a couple of our favorite new show formats. First up is the rewatch show, which we're calling Version History. We talk through the whole story of Quibi, from its early d …

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Finally, some good news for Quibi

2021-09-15T18:26:30-04:00

Quibi's zombie may finally be able to rest its weary head. The company's successor has settled an ongoing feud with eternal thorn-in-its-side Eko.

Eko, an interactive video company, and Quibi's successor QBI Holdings announced today that they'd reached a settlement in the legal battle over Quibi's perspective-shifting Turnstyle feature, which Eko alleged the streaming service had swiped from its own proprietary video technology. Both companies have agreed to dismiss their legal action against one another, and Quibi will hand over both the video technology and Turnstyle IP to Eko as part of their agreement.

"This result will help ensure tha …

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More than 20 free Roku Originals will premiere Friday

2021-08-09T18:44:16-04:00

Roku is putting much of its massive Quibi content haul to work beginning Friday.

On August 13th, nearly two dozen Roku Originals will debut on the Roku Channel. Many have not previously premiered elsewhere, including a Josh Groban-hosted series called Eye Candy that's based on the Japanese show Sokkuri Sweets, cleaning competition show Squeaky Clean, the second season of pay-it-forward series Thanks a Million, and 10-part docuseries What Happens in Hollywood about power dynamics in the entertainment industry.

Additionally, Emmy-nominated Quibi comedy the Mapleworth Murders will also debut on the service this week. The full list of 23 Roku …

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Quibi’s zombie corpse rises again to claim eight Emmy nominations

2021-07-13T15:23:02-04:00

Quibi wasn't long for this world, but its spirit refuses to let us move on from its chaotic memory. Despite shutting down in December, the doomed streaming service scooped up several Emmy nominations today for its shortform originals across three categories.

The service received eight nominations for three of its series, including Die Hart, Mapleworth Murders, and Reno 911! As was the case when a handful of Quibi originals were nominated for Emmy awards last year, the service cleaned up in shortform content categories, which makes a lot of sense considering it doesn't exactly have a ton of competition in the arena. Its nominations by catego …

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Quibi’s library will live on through the Roku Channel

2021-01-08T09:59:16-05:00

Roku has acquired defunct streaming service Quibi's library of content, the company announced today. Content from the short-form service will appear on the Roku Channel for free at some point in 2021, though the company hasn't announced an exact date for its arrival. Roku did not disclose how much it paid for the content in its announcement, but The Wall Street Journal reports it paid "significantly less" than $100 million for the shows. The deal was rumored earlier this month in a separate report from the WSJ.

Despite Quibi's failure, its content was star-studded. Roku's announcement says the Quibi content it has licensed will feature star …

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Quibi reportedly in talks to sell its shows to Roku

2021-01-03T21:38:11-05:00

Failed mobile-first streaming service Quibi is in advanced discussions to sell the rights to its content library to Roku, according to The Wall Street Journal. The report doesn't indicate a potential price for the acquisition, and notes that the two parties may not reach a deal.

If it were to happen, the deal could give the Roku Channel exclusive access to Quibi's slate of programming. None of Quibi's shows ever really took off, but Roku may feel that the content would stand a better chance when available on the best-selling streaming devices in the US.

Quibi announced it was shutting down back in October, just six months after its much-hy …

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The Quickest Bite

2020-11-11T10:00:35-05:00

What attracted Sophie* to Quibi was the money. Coming from the world of TV, where she'd made minimum wage and had little hope of a promotion, the salary offered by the streaming app felt ludicrously high, nearly double what she'd previously been making. She didn't think the idea would work - why pay for short TV episodes when you could watch YouTube for free? - but that didn't matter. She'd find another job when it all went up in flames, and in the meantime, she'd get paid.

The feeling was confirmed over her first few months at Quibi HQ in Los Angeles. The office was impressive, all sleek glass walls and Apple products, and combined Silico …

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Lil Yachty’s Quibi show is the first to find a life raft

2020-10-29T20:26:03-04:00

Remember Quibi, short-lived media company and purveyor of bizarre shows like Murder House Flip and a horror anthology featuring a golden arm? It's only been a little over a week since the mobile-first, shortform streamer announced it was shuttering, but already the first of its unreleased shows has found a new home: Lil Yachty's dramedy, Public Figures, is headed to HBO Max. It seems pieces of Quibi might live on - whether you watched it or not.

Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman's efforts to sell Quibi outright to big companies like Apple and WarnerMedia was one of the first indications that things were about to go bottoms up at the young …

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Quibi will shut down ‘on or around’ December 1st

2020-10-22T17:53:35-04:00

Quibi will shut down for good "on or around December 1st," according to a new blog posted on the company's support site. The announcement comes one day after company executives declared Quibi was shutting down for good.

It's unclear where Quibi's content will be available after the app shuts down. The company does recommend, however, following the Quibi hashtag on Twitter for any news about its library catalog. Earlier today, co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg told CNBC the company is currently trying to find buyers for its shows. It's unclear how many of those shows Quibi owns the rights to, or for how long, but Katzenberg said he believes ther …

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Quibi’s top executives are ready to blame themselves, not just the pandemic, for Quibi failing

2020-10-22T14:28:11-04:00

Quibi co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg admitted he was wrong for comments he made in May blaming the entirely of the company's failing on the coronavirus pandemic. He's ready to accept the blame for Quibi's collapse.

"It [wasn't] fair," Katzenberg told CNBC earlier today. That chat with CNBC was the first interview he and CEO Meg Whitman did after announcing Quibi was shutting down. "It was a bit of a quippy answer - a flippant answer - at the time. But other companies have faced the challenges of COVID and have managed to find a path. I think Meg and I believe in owning our miss. Simply to blame it on COVID is not fair, and not something eith …

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