Quibi’s vast library of short content may have found a new home.
According Wall Street Journal, Roku is approaching an agreement to buy Quibi’s content catalog, the small format mobile streaming platform launched by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman that was launched in April 2020 before closing in December.
O WSJ reports that Roku would acquire the rights to Quibi’s content, but the specific details and financial terms of the proposed deal have not been revealed and the deal may still fail.
The $ 1.75 billion venture by Katzenberg and Whitman was set to change the way we consume content with series and movies that ran in bits of 10 minutes or less. In January 2020, the duo shared their first look at “turnstyle” content that featured projects with high-voltage Hollywood talent, such as Guillermo del Toro, Steven Spielberg, Antoine Fuqua, Reese Witherspoon, Anna Kendrick, Liam Hemsworth, Sophie Turner , among others. The hype and buzz for the new platform continued at Sundance, where they allowed the masses to try the new app.
After the launch, Quibi did not gain much momentum and in October it was announced that they were closing. They officially closed the store on December 1st.
In some of Quibi’s businesses, producers have partnered with Quibi to exhibit their shows on the platform for seven years. According WSJ, there were some contracts that stated that the content could not be shared on other platforms. The terms of Roku’s contract would not prevent the company from displaying the content.