What's a Quibi?

When Quibi released a commercial about their new short-form streaming platform during the SuperBowl, that was the question on everyone’s mind. In a world where streaming services are commonplace and YouTube makes short-form video content accessible, there has yet to be a platform that marries both of these things.

The following week, Quibi released a series of ads during the Oscars further explaining their niche as a platform. Now, almost a week later, Quibi has announced several of the shows that will be on the platform and they contain big-name Hollywood stars and directors.

Undoubtedly, Quibi has wagered a lot of money on having a big opening when their streaming service goes live on April 6th. The money that it would cost to hire these actors and directors is a huge investment from the production team. In order to make this investment back, Quibi needs to have subscribers before its launch date. According to the Verge, Quibi’s shows will cost up to $125,000 per minute of content to produce. The platform will charge $4.99 a month for service with ads and $7.99 for service without ads. With these numbers in mind, Quibi will need 15,000 to 25,000 subscribers to pay for each minute of content that they have created. In order to make these goals, Quibi has been advertising in the most prominent places in entertainment over the past month. However, only time will tell if it will be enough to pay off.