THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 50 MARCH 26, 2020
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IMAGES.off as the health risk mounted. Though
nothing has been finalized, the cur-
rent plan is to conduct a virtual press
junket and then unleash social media
missives from Quibi’s talent partners.
“The bad news is we had to cancel the
party,” says Katzenberg. “The good
news is we have 200 talent getting on
social media to talk about what they’ve
made for us.”
In spite of it all, Whitman insists
there’s nothing stopping Quibi from
moving forward with its rollout as
planned. “We have every confidence
we’re going to be able to launch,” she
says, calling from the West Hollywood
condo where she has set up her home
office. “We have the right content to
launch, the technology is ready, our
messaging has been out in the market.
We’re ready to go.”Even before the world (and Hollywood)
went topsy-turvy, Quibi’s launch was a
favorite topic of conversation at power
lunches. Insiders, many of whom have
projects with the streamer, quietly
questioned whether it can possibly
work. After all, Quibi is playing in a
decidedly different space than the leg-
acy media conglomerates and the tech
giants waging a multibillion-dollar
war for people’s attention (and wal-
lets) with tentpole IP like Disney+’s The
Mandalorian and beloved classics like
Friends (for AT&T’s forthcoming HBO
Max) and The Office (NBCU’s Peacock).
For $5 a month with ads, or $8 with-
out, Quibi (short for “quick bites”) will
offer a mobile-only mix of serialized
scripted stories, reality shows and
news-driven fare — all delivered in
installments shorter than 10 minutes.
Though mobile video consump-
tion is on the rise — the average time
spent per day is expected to grow to
44 minutes by 2021, per eMarketer —
no one has proved that consumers,
especially those in Quibi’s target demoof 25- to 35-year-olds, will pay for such
programming when they can watch
YouTube and Twitch for free. And
Verizon already tried to lure viewers
to a free product, go90, that quickly
went bust despite a billion-dollar
investment. “A lot of these mobile-only
streaming services haven’t been suc-
cessful,” says eMarketer media analyst
Ross Benes, making the case that many
sources have made to THR privately
but few will say publicly. “How many of
these streaming services in the grave-
yard do you need before you stop trying
to revive an idea?”
Katzenberg argues that no one has
really tried, at least not with the type
of expensive, creative-driven projects
that Quibi has lined up. The company
boasts a launch slate of 50 shows,
which THR has sampled, including the
unflinchingly dark thriller Survive,
starring Sophie Turner as a tortured
plane crash survivor; the broadcast-
style unscripted series Thanks a Million,shows. Everyone from Jason Blum to
Antoine Fuqua to Catherine Hardwicke
has signed on.
Still, there’s no clear model for
how consumers will respond to an
app devoted to shortform episodic
programming meant to be viewed
during breaks in the day. And despite
a $500 million year-one marketing
campaign that kicked off in ear-
nest with a Super Bowl commercial,
general awareness of Quibi is low, a
THR/Morning Consult poll finds. Of
2,200 nationally representative adults
surveyed March 19-21, 68 percent said
they had heard nothing at all about
Quibi and just 5 percent said they’d
heard a lot. But Katzenberg is confi-
dent that Quibi’s social media launch
strategy will change all that, declar-
ing, “I’m extremely confident that you
will have to be on an isolated island, in
a cave under a rock, to not know that
Quibi is coming.”
On top of it all, Katzenberg and
Whitman are now barreling toward
launch day without the slightest clue
what the world will look like when they
get there.
If the coronavirus threat continues
through the spring and even early
summer, Americans’ self-isolation
could give Quibi a captive audience
primed to take advantage of its lengthy
90-day free trial. “If you can’t go to
school and you can’t go to work, odds
are you’ve got more time on your
hands than ever before,” suggests
LightShed Partners media analyst Rich
Greenfield, who is generally optimistic
about the service’s chances of catch-
ing on with consumers. “It bodes well
for a mobile video launch.” But Quibi
is a product designed to be viewed on
the go (and only available on a mobile
device). Says Needham & Co. entertain-
ment analyst Laura Martin, “Their
value proposition just went down in a
world where everyone’s quarantined
in their home with their television and
trying to fill five hours.”
Even Whitman admits there are a lot
of unknowns. “I don’t think we know
how people will respond,” she says. “It
depends on what people are doing at
home, how many people are at home.
This situation is different every day.”
Katzenberg is more sanguine: “All of us
now have as many in-between times as
we had before. They’re just different.”In the three-act play of Katzenberg’s
career, Quibi is the climax. He’d been
kicking around the idea for a mobile
video venture for years when, afterWhy Quibi Is Going All In on Mobile
Video consumption on cellphones has increased as on-the-go streaming quality improves
Mobile Phone Video Viewers Average Time Per Day With Mobile VideoFuquaSantora2020 2021 2022 2023 20242017201820192020202134.537.339.942.244.1I’m confident that
you will have to be on an
island, in a cave under
a rock, to not know that
Quibi is coming.”
KATZENBERGfrom executive producer Jennifer
Lopez, in which celebrities give back to
those who helped them on their path to
success; and the HGTV spoof Flipped,
about a down-on-their-luck couple
(Will Forte and Kaitlin Olson) who
get more than they bargained for with
their new fixer-upper. Rounding them
out are the Liam Hemsworth drama
Most Dangerous Game, Chrissy Teigen-
as-judge series Chrissy’s Court and a
P u n k ’d reboot. In its first year alone, it
plans to release more than 175 originalSource: eMarketer Source: eMarketer202M 207M 211M216M 220MU.S. 2020-24 MILLIONS % OF POPULATION U.S. 2020-24 MINUTES % CHANGE60.8%12.6%8.3%7%5.5%4.6%61.8% 62.6% 63.6% 64.2%10fea_quibi_L [P]{Print}_53657977.indd 50 3/24/20 9:08 PM