Have you been in the market for a struggling streaming service? Got a few million laying around and some ideas for bite-sized content? Well, I have good news for you then.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Quibi, the streamer that launched just back in April, is “exploring several strategic options including a possible sale.” This comes on the heels of months and months of bad news about Quibi, including reports of a lack of funding and minimal viewership. Things haven’t ever been smooth for Quibi — even when they do get some rare good news.
I think everyone assumed that something like this would eventually happen to the service. The writing was on the walls, a company can’t go on like this forever. Either someone else needed to take over Quibi or it needed a massive hit to put it on the map and bring in new subscribers or, more likely, it just needed to close up shop and call it a day. One thing was for sure: Quibi wouldn’t be able to survive in its current form forever.
The tricky thing about Quibi is that its mission and format is so peculiar and unique: shows with episodes clocking in under 10 minutes. It’s hard to grow a successful business from such a strict idea. It doesn’t lend itself to new viewers, nor does it lend itself to landing old favorites like Netflix and Hulu have. A lot of the success of other streaming services come from a back catalogue of purchased syndicated shows, old classics that people want to watch again before venturing into new content. Quibi can’t really do that. You can’t buy, say, old episodes of Quantum Leap and then cut them up in to 10 minute chunks. Quibi will succeed or fail based solely on its original content, which…isn’t that good.
If Quibi really does go up for sale and really does find a buyer, a lot of tough choices will have to be made. Will the next owners push Quibi in a new direction, abandoning what made it unique in favor of something that will keep it alive? Or will they double down on the unusual model and try to find new subscribers by sheer force of will? It’s a rough road ahead.