Quibi Shutdown: What Will Happen To Its Shows?

Shortform streaming service Quibi has announced that it is shutting down just a mere six months after it started. While the streaming service hosted to stiff competition in the streaming space, it leaves questions about what will happen to its shows?

The streaming service made the announcement on Wednesday, saying with “incredibly heavy heart” it was “winding down the business and looking to sell its content and technology assets.”

The news came from founder Jeffrey Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman in an open letter to employees, investors, and partners.

Katzenberg and Whitman said in the letter that “Quibi was a big idea and there was no one who wanted to make a success of it more than we did. Our failure was not for lack of trying; we’ve considered and exhausted every option available to us.”

The quick bite video streaming service attributed its closure to the pandemic and timing as Katzenberg and Whitman said, “Quibi is not succeeding. Likely for one of two reasons: because the idea itself wasn’t strong enough to justify a standalone streaming service or because of our timing.

“Unfortunately, we will never know but we suspect it’s been a combination of the two. The circumstances of launching during a pandemic is something we could have never imagined but other businesses have faced these unprecedented challenges and have found their way through it. We were not able to do so,” they continued.

The shows on Quibi, however, have not found a home just yet.

Katzenberg reportedly looked to sell the platform’s original shows and short films to Apple, WarnerMedia, and Facebook without any avail earlier this year, The Verge reported. Katenberg also made attempts to get Facebook and NBCUniversal to pick up the content, but again, this did not yield any results, The Verge said.

Katzenberg and Whitman said in their letter that they will continue to look for a buyer for the content, but to date, no one has stepped forward to take on the shows and films that Quibi offered to its subscribers as a part of its streaming service.

“Over the coming months we will be working hard to find buyers for these valuable assets who can leverage them to their full potential,” they said.

Quibi will begin notifying its subscribers about the final date to access content on the platform in the near term.