Finding a place between Netflix, Disney +, Apple TV + and HBO Max seems like an impossible mission. It is however the ambition of Quibi (for "Quick bites", something to eat fasto), a streaming service which will offer, from April, series and films cut into bite-size pieces of ten minutes at maximum. Its particularity: the service will only exist on smartphones, with content exploiting both portrait and landscape orientation. If doubt has been mounting in recent months, the official presentation at CES 2020 in Las Vegas on Wednesday has shown great creative promise. The economic challenge remains immense.
Quibi.
The next evolution of entertainment is here. #QuibiCES pic.twitter.com/RpkqAt6j5C
What is Quibi?
A paid streaming service that will be launched on smartphones on April 6 in the United States, at $ 4.99 per month with ads, and $ 7.99 without. Quibi will offer 100% new content (films, series, news, sports, documentaries) divided into chapters of ten minutes maximum.
Who is Quibi?
The baby of Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman. Katzenberg is the man who revived Disney studios in the 1990s ( The Little Mermaid , Aladdin , the Lion King ) then co-founded DreamWorks animation with Steven Spielberg. Whitman, she ran eBay and then HP. Add product manager Tom Conrad, ex-Pandora, and ex-VP at Snapchat, and you have an all-star team. Who has managed to raise more than a billion dollars, notably from Disney, NBCUniversal, Sony and Warner.
Talents and programs announced
Guillermo del Toro, Steven Spielberg, Sam Raimi, Antoine Fuqua, Doug Liman, the Russo brothers, Reese Witherspoon, Idris Elba, Zac Efron, Sophie Turner… All of Hollywood is here, with 175 new programs (over 7,000 episodes) announced for the first year. According to The Verge, AAA productions will be around $ 125,000 per ... minute. For those who matter, it's $ 7.5 million an hour - that's close to the average for Game of Thrones or Stranger Things.
A double format that opens up new perspectives
OK Boomer, why choose between the landscape format, popular on Netflix and YouTube, and the portrait orientation, preferred by generation Z on smartphones with Snapchat and TikTok? Quibi offers both… at the same time. This is the innovation unveiled at CES, with the Turnstyle mode, which allows for example to see a wide shot in horizontal, or a close-up on a face in vertical.
Magic: Quibi, the streaming service for smartphones of a former Disney boss, will offer films and series filmed by two cameras, offering two different perspectives in portrait / landscape mode. Are you preparing a little horror film @Vincent_Jule :)? # CES20 #Quibi pic.twitter.com/Xe7UVdNO12
- Philippe Berry (@ptiberry) January 9, 2020We are not talking about a zoom but films and series filmed by two cameras, offering two different perspectives. The short film Nest, which stages a home invasion , allows you to experience the events in a classic way or through what the main character sees on his smartphone (which shows the images of video surveillance). You go from one perspective to another without interruption by turning your smartphone, thanks to a streaming technology that synchronizes the two flows.
One show. One screen. Two perspectives.
Hold the phone horizontally = Cinematic perspective.
Hold the phone vertically = The character's phone takes over your phone. #QuibiCES pic.twitter.com/mANwJJKsGU
It also works for pubs, with Pepsi.
Adam Harter and our partners @PepsiCo have produced the VERY-FIRST Turnstyle ad, created for @mountaindew.
Here.
It.
Is. # CES2020 #QuibiCES pic.twitter.com/pGxcnTDCc9
And can it work?
On paper, Quibi seems to offer the creativity of Vine or TikTok applied to Hollywood productions. The double perspective could turn into a gimmick or upset interactive Bandersnatch- like experiences. Be careful though, some have already lamentably planted themselves dreaming of conquering the smartphone. Vivendi, in particular, closed its Studio + service after two years and tens of millions of euros in losses. For Quibi, the stake will amount to billions.
High-Tech
OnePlus reveals everything about its Concept One and its invisible sensors
- Apple
- Disney
- Netflix
- streaming
- CES 2020
- Culture