Quibi, the short-form streaming service, launched earlier this year. But it’s been a rocky last few months for the company, and there may be no turning things around.
Update (10/21/2020): The Wall Street Journal has updated its story to reflect that Quibi will be shutting down after just six months of being in service.
At the time of publication for this update, it remains to be seen what will happen with the slate of original content that Quibi has already launched, and what was still in the works. The service has worked with a variety of creative talent both in front and behind the camera, so it will be interesting to see where the films and TV series end up.
The original article continues below.
According to a report from The Wall Street Journal today, founder Jeffrey Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman have been unable to find a buyer for the mobile video platform. That would line up with a report from earlier this month, outlining Katzenberg’s efforts to try and find a buyer for Quibi as the company’s struggles mount. Katzenberg reportedly spoke to many individuals trying to find a buyer, including Apple’s own Eddy Cue. But, just like Apple, no one jumped at the opportunity.
Quibi hired a restructuring firm to look at the company and offer options to the board of directors. That happened at some point this week, and one of those options is to shutter the company. This latest report from the WSJ reinforces a separate story from The Information just yesterday, which stated that Katzenberg has been telling “people in the industry that he may have to shut down the company”.
Quibi will be holding a call with investors later today (Wednesday, October 21). That call will apparently be to update investors on the status of the company as a whole.
As it stands right now, Quibi has around 500,000 paying subscribers to its service. It amassed more than one million downloads in its first month of availability back in April. However, any momentum the company had at launch quickly died out. And, since then, Quibi has failed to gain traction in the industry.
The news that Quibi may be on the verge of shutting down comes hot on the heels of the news that the service is now available on Apple TV.
For anyone who is a fan of Quibi, the news that the service may be on the cusp of shutting down probably isn’t great news. But it’s likely not surprising, either.