Roku Acquires Rights to Quibi Content for Less Than $100 Million
Roku has reached an agreement to acquire the rights to content from the now-defunct video streaming service Quibi (via The Wall Street Journal).
Roku reportedly paid less than $100 million to acquire the rights to Quibi's library of original content until 2022.
Quibi was a short-form video subscription service launched in April of last year. Executives believed that the service would be able to garner approximately 7.4 million subscribers during its first year, but it massively fell short with an estimated 400,000 to 500,000 subscribers. After courting a number of tech companies, including Apple, to see if it could be sold off, the service announced that it was shutting down in October 2020.
Roku is the biggest streaming media player in the United States, with a library of more than 40,000 movies and TV shows, and the acquisition of Quibi's content will offer a boost of more than 75 shows and documentaries.
Quibi's content will also be among the minority of exclusives on the platform, as the majority of Roku's programming is also viewable elsewhere. The acquisition is expected to give Roku more leverage in negotiations with advertisers, who may pay more to show their ads alongside shows that viewers are unable to see elsewhere.
Popular Stories
Unidentified governments are surveilling smartphone users by tracking push notifications that move through Google's and Apple's servers, a US senator warned on Wednesday (via Reuters). In a letter to the Department of Justice, Senator Ron Wyden said foreign officials were demanding the data from the tech giants to track smartphones. The traffic flowing from apps that send push notifications...
iOS 17.2 has been in beta testing for over a month, and it should be released to all users in a few more weeks. The software update includes many new features and changes for iPhones, including the dozen that we have highlighted below. iOS 17.2 is expected to be released to the public in mid-December. To learn about even more features coming in the update, check out our full list. Journal ...
Apple today released new firmware update for both the Lightning and USB-C versions of the AirPods Pro 2. The new firmware is version 6B34, up from the 6B32 firmware introduced in November. Apple does not provide details on what features might be included in the refreshed firmware beyond "bug fixes and other improvements," so it is unclear what's new in the update, but prior software releases ...
Apple's Korean suppliers have begun developing smartphone under-display cameras (UDC), paving the way for the first iPhone with a true "all-screen" appearance. According to The Elec, LG Innotek has entered the preliminary development of the UDC, which sits under the display and does not result in a visible hole in the panel when the camera is not in use. A UDC differs from a typical front ...
Recently, MacRumors has received details on the battery currently being tested on the upcoming fourth-generation iPhone SE, and the information corroborates previous findings in relation to the device. The iPhone SE 4, known by its device identifier D59, is expected to use the exact same battery found in the base model iPhone 14. Partially assembled prototypes of the next iPhone SE have been ...
To boost falling iPad sales, Apple has a major refresh planned for the iPad lineup in early 2024, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple plans to debut new iPad Air and iPad Pro models, both of which will feature notable changes. The iPad Air will come in two sizes like the iPad Pro for the first time. The smaller model will continue to measure in at 10.9 inches, but the larger version...
Apple has shared the full release notes for iOS 17.2, which is in the final stage of beta testing and should be released to the public next week. iOS 17.2 includes a long list of new features and changes, including a Journal app, spatial video recording on iPhone 15 Pro models, several improvements to the Messages and Weather apps, a Favorite Songs playlist in Apple Music, and more. iOS...
The iOS 17.2 update that Apple is set to release to the public in the near future will bring support for the next-generation Qi2 wireless charging standard to the iPhone 13 and iPhone 14 models. Qi2 was mentioned in the release notes for the RC version of the update that came out today. With the addition of support for the new standard, iPhone 13 and iPhone 14 models will work with Qi2...
Top Rated Comments
Was it the content or was it:
- The timing of the launch (April 2020)? That was around the height of the 1st wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
- The name of the service? What's a Quibi?
- The business model? You pay $5 per month to watch a few short videos and you still get served ads? Yes, their business model is similar to Hulu's ad supported version of which 70 percent of their subscribers are on ('https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/hulu-ad-supported-subscribers-70-percent-1203227954/'), but Hulu's got a lot more content (new, old, and originals) and they had 1st mover advantage. And if you took advantage of the Hulu Black Friday promos in 2018 ($$0.99/mo for 1 year), 2019 ($1.99/mo for 1 year), and 2020 ($1.99/mo for 1 year), Quibi is a poor value in comparison.
- Quibi had to acquire new subscribers from scratch and you had to watch the shorts on a small screen vs your big screen TV at home.
I don't believe the problem was the content; Quibi has several good shows ('https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/best-quibi-shows/').
Quibi managed to acquire "an estimated 400,000 to 500,000 subscribers."
Meanwhile, as of Q3 2020, Roku had 46 million active accounts ('https://ir.roku.com/static-files/2148e434-58e4-48e1-bd1c-926862e3c21b') and their Roku Channel reached 54 million U.S. households.
Roku's going to have a lot more people watching this content now. For Roku, this is an investment in their platform which, for their most recent quarter, grew revenue 78 percent year-over-year.