Quibi Roku, Amazon Fire TV in talks to bring service – variety

Built just for mobile viewing by listeners envisioned as the phone-toting millennium, Quibi now wants to move to more living room TVs.

The company, founded by former film mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg, has been in talks with both Roku and Amazon to create native applications for their connected-TV platforms, Diversity Learned. In the case of Amazon, it will be the family of Fire TV devices.

According to a source familiar with the talks, Quibi’s talks with Amazon have “recently returned”. With Roku, there has been talk of bringing Quebec to the platform at a very early stage; A source warned that Roku could walk away from a deal based on the proposed revenue-sharing deal of Quibi. (A QUB representative did not comment on his talks with Roku and Amazon during the press conference.)

One reason for the urgency: Quibee’s downloads and viewership fell far short of expectations before it began charging for subscriptions. Indeed, at current speeds, Quibi will have less than 2 million subscribers by April 2021, which will be less than 30% of its 7.4 million year-on-year target, the Wall Street Journal reported. (Despite controversy over the numbers in the QUIBI Journal, various subscribers refused to give projections)

The introduction of Quibi was partly distorted by a problem not of its own making: it just weeks after the carnivirus epidemic locked up large parts of the United States – displacing the proposal to continue surveillance. Early users were disappointed they couldn’t see QUIBI on TV.

Being able to “cast” Quebec on TV was on the road map for a long time, but the company accelerated the timeline. It added support for Apple’s AirPlay on May 25, allowing users to stream streams to Apple TV set-tops and other compatible devices. On June 9, Quibi updated its Android and iOS applications to support Google’s Chromecast and Chromecast-integrated TVs.

Now Tom Conrad and his team are working to get two of the largest Internet TV platforms and possibly fight streamers for others. Katzenberg said last year – “mobile video is a white space,” Katzenberg said last year – “the strategic decision to segregate KBB in smartphones, the strategic decision to stand out from the world over Netflix and Hulas is the expected recognition.”

“They need eyeballs and they need to monetize their eyeballs,” said an industry source about Kuibi’s ramp-up ambition for connected-TV distribution.

Even isolated from the COVID-19 situation, observers say the mobile-only model that was brought to market via Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman was probably not going the right way.

“The idea they came up with was great: it’s based on common sense that young people see short content on mobile devices. But they can apply it in a very literal sense,” said Joe Charter, head of Denver-based media and technology consulting firm Monday. Video executive Gary Scanman says.

To gain customer traction, Scanman said, “The content they’re providing shouldn’t be everywhere and right now. Customers should get it on big screen TVs for the highest price and ubiquity. And continue to offer a “free” content level to help them see the value: “You want Chrissy Tegin’s show to be available, but customers will see why the pricing requirements for this content are met. “

Tal-Chologin, co-founder and CTO of the ad-tech company, says the key is content with high-production value – Quibi is proud to spend এটি 100,000 per minute on its core content – “it needs to be on TV,” says Tal-Chologin, ad- Tech company co-founder and CTO Innovid. “TickTock and Snapchat are proving that mistake,” Cholozin said, referring to the segregation of the app’s takeoff that has led to Quiber’s remarks.

At the moment, Katzenberg – who has raised 1.755 billion for the venture – is almost certainly No. I throw it in the Cuban towel.

“Quibi was launched two months ago. Starting packing, canceling its original strategy and calling the day is not too early now, ”said Peter Cassetti, founder and chairman of Creative Media, a consulting and creative services firm.

Urgent to go to more TV platforms in Quebec, Cassity agreed: “Capturing our mobile devices didn’t help them, especially during the epidemic where customers were forced to stream to their living rooms.”

Casey said Quibit also needs to re-examine its programming strategy because it has to do with what it is trying to reach an 18-34 audience, “That ‘s what drives audiences with big names like Hollywood [Steven] Spielberg? Or what kind of branding is important to the target audience – or not even relevant? “Changes must be made based on preliminary results,” he said.