Quibi is Giving People a 90-day Free Trial in Hopes They'll Actually Sign Up (theverge.com) 33
Quibi, a streaming service that has already raised more than $1.6 billion, is finally almost here, and in an effort to entice people who are probably already spending too much on content every month, the short form video streaming service is giving people a 90-day free trial for a limited time. From a report: The company is also planning to pump an impressive amount of content into the app within that time. Quibi is set to launch on April 6th with 50 shows and movies, half of which consists of "daily essential" programming that's constantly being updated. More will be released throughout the first month and beyond. After the 90-day trial, Quibi will cost $4.99 with ads, and $7.99 without. That's more expensive than Apple TV Plus and Disney Plus, both of which run ad-free.
Everyone will be home sick and dying (Score:1)
Another Silicon Valley Innovation (Score:1)
Re:Another Silicon Valley Innovation (Score:4, Insightful)
This is all Los Angeles/Hollywood created by Jeffrey Katzenberg. Trying to replicate DreamWorks SKG for the 21st century.
"Quibi aims to provide a brand-safe alternative to YouTube, TikTok and other social networks whose dependence on user-generated content makes them vulnerable to abuse." -mobilemarketer.com
Problem is people ('eyeballs') go to Tiktok and Youtube because they like that sort of content. I'm guessing Quibi will be the PBS of streaming. Nice, good quality, safe, but everyone else is watching the gore/nudity/action of GOT on HBO.
Re: (Score:3)
I'm guessing Quibi will be the PBS of streaming. Nice, good quality, safe, but everyone else is watching the gore/nudity/action of GOT on HBO.
You sure about that?
Murder House Flipped (a show about flipping homes where people have been murdered)
I think this sounds a lot more like someone who doesn't understand the audience attempting to rape them for cash.
Re: Another Silicon Valley Innovation (Score:2)
Business model (Score:3)
Are people going to pay a monthly fee to subscribe to watch 10-minute long TV shows?
No. They are not.
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$4.99 with ads (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:$4.99 with ads (Score:5, Insightful)
Nope, fuck you, not even once, fuck that.
Came here to post that. Not disappointed.
Whomever thinks people pay money and still want to be bombarded with fucking ads is a fucking idiot who needs to go suck a dick.
Re:$4.99 with ads (Score:5, Insightful)
Whomever thinks people pay money and still want to be bombarded with fucking ads is a fucking idiot who needs to go suck a dick.
Need I point out there are people out there who enjoy sucking dicks?
Re:$4.99 with ads (Score:4, Insightful)
And yet people pay for cable TV where all but the premium movie channels have ads.
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Re: (Score:2)
Re:$4.99 with ads (Score:4, Interesting)
What this outfit is trying to do is develop original content. So far so good. There absolutely is original content I'd be glad to pay $4.99 a month for, even with ads.
For example I'd happily pay five times that for original adaptions of landmark science fiction works like *The Stars My Destination*, or *Nightfall*.
So what are these guys offering? Mostly kitschy, high-concept fluff built around second tier celebrities. For example *Chrissy's Court*, which is *Judge Judy* but with swimsuit model Chrissy Teigen as the judge.
That kind of stuff gets a hard pass from me, but I guess you never know. Like H.L. Mencken probably never quite said, "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people."
Re: (Score:3)
Like H.L. Mencken probably never quite said, "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people."
Michael Bloomberg had a good try though.
Seems like a terrible idea (Score:3)
10 minutes just seems like a really bad time range to choose.
If you are looking for high quality content, you can spend an hour or more or looking at things.
If you are just wanting to watch a quick video or two, well that is perfect amount of time to browse YouTube or TikTok. Who wants professionally produced short form content? I believe that is called "a commercial".
Re: (Score:2)
10 minutes just seems like a really bad time range to choose.
If you are looking for high quality content, you can spend an hour or more or looking at things.
If you are just wanting to watch a quick video or two, well that is perfect amount of time to browse YouTube or TikTok. Who wants professionally produced short form content? I believe that is called "a commercial".
They just focus-grouped it and discovered that half of the users wanted 15min videos. So they just averaged it to 10 minutes and went to lunch.
Destined to die (Score:2)
Fail (Score:2)
Founder Jeffrey Katzenberg doesn’t see Disney Plus or Netflix as competitors, but the free apps that gobble up people’s attention. He and CEO Meg Whitman are hoping they can convince people to spend time in Quibi instead.
They want to entice people who use free services now, to switch to this paid service that they aren't familiar with?
Why would anyone do that?
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Pluto (Score:2)
For background noise or watching older movies I really like Pluto TV. It has some commercials but its free and streams to any browser without bullshit apps.
$8 here, $5 there... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
... pretty soon streaming starts to look like a cable bill.
If by "pretty soon" you mean right away, then I agree. Especially when you still have to pay for the cable bill to get your internet access, and it isn't exactly going down in cost.
Still Wrong (Score:3)
. pretty soon streaming starts to look like a cable bill.
Wrong for two reasons:
1) $5 here, $8 there is still WAY CHEAPER than most cable packages even with several services subscribed to.
2) You can opt to just have one or two at a time you watch, you are n control if it $5 a month or $50. No such variability of option exists with Cable where you can buy the expensive plan, or the even more expensive plan with HBO/Showtime/some other crap you didn't;t want.
and you don't get 1 app/box 1 set of multi tv / st (Score:2)
and you don't get 1 app/box 1 set of multi tv / stream rules / 1 bill / etc
So like Floatplane.com ... (Score:2)
... but with ungodly sums of VC money?
I'll bet on LinusTechTips because he knows how to run a site without infinite money.
Hollywood version of Progressive Park (Score:2)
It's a product that is DOA. It's also a tax write-off for the financial backers and executives behind this failure.
I still have no idea what they do (Score:2)
I'm fooled! (Score:2)
Perfect (Score:2)
10 minute shows - perfect for the ADHD crowd - which is pretty much everyone under 30 these days, now if they can just talk their parents into giving them the money for it.
BEST EVER April Fools Joke in the making! (Score:2)
Mind blown. 10 min, tiny-screen format shows WITH commercials for $5 per month. WTF?
Sincerely hope that this will turn out to be the most epic gag ever.