NE SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY BUREAU
Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg said it was designed for young lifestyles, offering episodes to be viewed while in a queue or on a break at work.
“We aim to give you big stories in quick bites,” Katzenberg (pictured) said at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
He billed Quibi – which launches in April – as a television transformation, taking advantage of smartphone features such as location, time of day, and pivoting from landscape to portrait screens.
Katzenberg said all Quibi content – from comedies to documentaries, sports and news – was original and being produced “by the biggest names in Hollywood.”
Created by Katzenberg, a longtime Disney executive and co-founder of DreamWorks SKG, the app drew inspiration from Dan Brown’s book The Da Vinci Code, which has more than 100 chapters averaging just five pages each.
The idea behind the innovative service that has the entertainment world abuzz is to attract younger viewers who are always on the move.
Major studios have pledged $1 billion in funding for the service, which has already attracted Hollywood names such as Steven Spielberg, Guillermo Del Toro and Jennifer Lopez.
Quibi joins Disney+, HBO Max and Apple TV+ among the players in a streaming war as the youth increasingly become “cord-cutters” – giving up expensive, often inflexible cable packages for a more a la carte online experience.
Rivals also include titans Netflix and Amazon Prime, which spend billions of dollars annually on original shows.
Google-owned YouTube also battles for the attention of video-seeking smartphone users.
Quibi launches on April 6 in the US and will charge $5 monthly for subscriptions that will include ads and $8 monthly for an ad-free version. AFP
