By I know, I know. You’ve been sitting around looking at the glut of high-quality, must-watch movies and TV shows on platforms like Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and Amazon and thinking all I really want to do is watch Chrissy Teagan bang a gavel. Well, we’re all finally in luck as Roku has announced that they are purchasing all of the content from Quibi after the idiotic idea nascent streamer went out of business in under a year. Hurray?
This move does give Roku a bunch of extra content, which it will stream for free for Roku users. It will all be ad-supported much like all the content on Roku, which is working to become more than just the platform you use to stream other people’s content. Not only will Roku users have access to everything that premiered on Quibi but the company has also bought the rights to the shows that didn’t have a chance to premiere, giving us all a chance to finally watch… ummm… I don’t actually know any shows on Quibi other than that Sam Raimi one.
There isn’t any word on how much Roku paid for the dubious honor of owning this content but I doubt it was all that much. Interestingly, Roku has agreed to Quibi’s lenient creator terms, which said that all creatives would own their content after seven years. That means that if you don’t watch these shows in the next six years they could be gone for good as directors and actors try to erase the fact they ever were part of the platform from the face of the earth. Considering that Roku doesn’t produce any of its own content it is also unlikely any of the series will see new life now.
Quibi was a joke before it even launched. The platform was supposed to be a mobile-friendly streamer with bite-sized shows that you could watch on the go. Despite spending millions and millions on advertising and pulling in some heavyweight talent no one was ever excited for the service, which finally gasped its last breath in October after no one signed up for it. Quibi’s executives blamed COVID-19 on the platform’s failure but while that probably contributed to some of the issues the more likely reason is that it was a dumb idea to start with.
[via CNBC]