While Quibi’s launch started off strong, its continued growth has likely been hindered by the fact that most of its intended audience are sheltering in place right now.
Given that the mobile-focused, bite-sized episodic video streaming platform is designed to be used on the go, the fact that subscribers aren’t leaving their house often amid the COVID-19 pandemic means they’re probably consuming more content on televisions.
To solve this issue, Quibi is soon launching the ability to stream its content to televisions. This feature is launching first on iOS through Airplay later this week, with TV casting coming to Android devices eventually. While a step in the right direction, watching short-form TV shows on a television is far from ideal. That said, at least Quibi’s content can be viewed both vertically and horizontally.
After amassing 300,000 downloads in a single day, mobile-focused streaming service Quibi hit 1.7 million downloads in its first week. However, these numbers are well below platforms like Disney+, which managed to secure more than 10 million subscribers in a single day. Quibi has 1.3 million active users after netting 3.5 million downloads in the first six weeks after launch, according to a recent New York Times interview with the platform’s co-founder, Jeffrey Katzenberg.
Katzenberg then went on to blame all of the service’s difficulties on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
While I’ve dabbled in Quibi’s content a bit over the last few weeks — mainly so I can watch Let’s Roll with Tony Greenhand — it’s true that I likely would be using the app way more if I was still commuting to work. While the ability to stream Quibi’s content to my TV will result in my watching more content through the app, there are so many streaming platforms out there like Crave, Netflix, Disney+ and Hayu, for example, that watching short videos on a television doesn’t seem very appealing.
In Canada, Quibi has an exclusive agreement with Bell related to original news content produced by CTV and TSN, including daily news program ‘NewsDay by CTV.’
Following the 90-day free trial, Quibi is priced at $6.99 CAD per month, with an ad-free subscription costing $9.99 a month.
Update 12/05/2020 10:35: The story has been updated with information about Quibi’s horizontal video mode.
Source: New York Times
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