Quibi crashed and burnt last year, the mobile first streaming services is reportedly in final negotiations to sell the rights to its content library to Roku, according to The Wall Street Journal. There has been no indication on how much this potential acquisition will cost and it is highly likely that that both Quibi and Roku may not reach a conclusive deal.
Supposing the deal goes through, the deal could give the Roku Channel exclusive rights to Quibi’s slate of programming. It should be noted that none of Quibi’s shows ever really took off but as a Quibi fanatic I really loved their content.
After six months of operations, in October 2020 Quibi announced that it is shutting down, breaking the record as the shortest-lived streaming service in history.
Quibi’s downfall was due to several factors which include:
- Their launch of a mobile-only streaming service at the height of a global pandemic when users were stuck at home
- There was no real breakout content that was compelling enough to tempt subscribers
- Shortform video content has a nearly infinite amount of free competition in the form of YouTube, TikTok, and other platforms.
But Quibi itself attributed this demise to that fact that “the idea itself wasn’t strong enough to justify a standalone streaming service or because of our timing.” The company already notified current subscribers as to the final date that they’ll be able to access Quibi.
