Quibi Is Officially Dead Nearly Eight Months After Debut
After announcing in late October that Jeffrey Katzenberg’s mobile streaming platform Quibi would be shutting down less than seven months following its initial launch on April 6, the bite-sized streamer app is no longer operable as of today (via Variety). The outlet reports that the app will remain on users’ devices until it is officially deleted, but the app “no longer allows users to sign in (returning an error message if they try to) or access any Quibi content.”
Founded by Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, the service’s social accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have either gone private or been wiped clean as the business winds down.
Word broke in September that Katzenberg was bringing the company to other brands in a pitch effort to sell the service, composed of 500,000 subscribers, to everyone including Apple, WarnerMedia, and Facebook, but failed to sell the programming rights to studios such as NBCUniversal, who were reportedly “put off by the fact that Quibi doesn’t own many of the shows it puts on its platform.”
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Variety also shared that the interactive-video company Eko is still “seeking to recoup nearly $100 million in damages from Quibi,” alleging that the streaming service’s “Turnstyle video-toggling feature infringed its patents and that Katzenberg’s startup stole trade secrets. Quibi has called the claims baseless.”
As far as Katzenberg’s future, a media exec told the outlet that they believe he will “go off the grid for a while to lick his wounds. This one must be very painful for him, because it was so high profile and it failed so fast.”
At its April launch, Quibi had roughly 50 original titles including various reality series starring Jennifer Lopez, Chrissy Teigen, and Chance the Rapper, as well as a number of major scripted programs including Sam Raimi’s 50 States of Fright, the Liam Hemsworth-starring Most Dangerous Game, Anna Kendrick-led Dummy, Kevin Hart-starring Die Hart and the revival of Comedy Central’s Reno! 911.
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