Jeffrey Katzenberg's Quibi launched in April 2020 to underwhelming numbers and eventually shut down in December after failing to reach its subscriber projections. Now, Roku confirms it as acquired the exclusive global distribution rights to Quibi's library of content.
Founded by Katzenberg and led by CEO Meg Whitman, Quibi offered customers short-form streaming content that was initially exclusive to mobile devices. While the launch of the service gained significant media attention, Quibi failed to gain traction and Katzenberg attributed the company's underwhelming performance to the COVIDF-19 pandemic's impact on the daily routines of would-be customers. While the company made adjuments in the ensuing months, including the addition of features that allowed Quibi content to be cast on televisions, the company ultimately folded and Roku began to inquire about purchasing its portfolio in early 2021.
Deadline reports Roku's acquisition of Quibi's library covers most of the defunct company's content, with the exception of some daily news shows. According to the outlet, the roster of talent that includes Idris Elba, Kevin Hart, Liam Hemsworth, Anna Kendrick, and Lena Waithe was a key draw for Roku. While the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, insiders purport the valuation of the agreement is understood to be less than $100 million. News of the deal resulted in Roku's shares rising from 5% to $398.60 and at one point early in the trading day, they reached an all-time high of $402.81. The line-up of original programming, which includes titles such as Most Dangerous Game and Dummy, will be available for free with advertisements on the Roku Channel starting later in 2021.
While Quibi offered short-form content designed for mobile devices, the Roku experience will aim for longer engagement in the living room. "It's the same availability of content, the same presentation of content," Holmes said in an interview with Deadline. "But as we spent a bunch of time with it, it really works, but they're just TV episodes. I think their premise was, you have 10 minutes, you would watch it. Our view is, this is TV, someone's going to spend half an hour or an hour or two hours watching it because it's just that compelling."
Roku recently experienced another surge in stock prices with news of the company closing a deal to provide HBO Max to its customers. With the new agreement, HBO Max is now available on nearly all major devices, including Fire TV, iOS devices, Playstation, Xbox, and Google devices.
The deal between Roku and HBO Max was closed just in time for the debut of Wonder Woman 1984, which premiered on the WarnerMedia streamer day-and-date with select theaters in the U.S. According to the results of a survey, adding the long-awaited DC sequel to the HBO Max played a significant part in adding and retaining customers.
Source: Deadline