- Video streaming service Quibi recently announced it has raised $400 million in additional funding
Quibi, a video streaming service led by Meg Whitman and Jeffrey Katzenberg, announced it recently raised $400 million in additional funding. This means Quibi has raised $1.4 billion before it even launches. Quibi is expected to arrive in April 2020.
Whitman is the former CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, the former CEO of HP, and former President and CEO of eBay. And Katzenberg is the co-founder and former CEO of DreamWorks, former chair of The Walt Disney Studios, and former president of motion pictures at Paramount Pictures.
This investment will be used for funding content and marketing. And the owners of the company are also considering whether to add another $100 million to the funding round. The prior $1 billion funding round was provided by Walt Disney Company, WarnerMedia, the Walmart heirs, and Goldman Sachs.
Quibi — which stands for “quick bites” — is expected to feature videos in 10-minute segments. And it will require a video subscription at a price of $4.99 per month with ads or $7.99 per month without ads.
Quibi may offer a free version for T-Mobile subscribers. T-Mobile President and COO Mike Sievert pointed out that the company’s customers will learn more about Quibi through the T-Mobile app, retail representatives at stores, and the T-Mobile Tuesdays program.
Within a year of launching, Quibi is expecting to launch 175 shows and 8,500 episodes. And Quibi is working with Google for its streaming technology backend.
At CES, Whitman said that she is much more confident than two years ago “now that we have real content on a real app.”
Quibi has some big names attached to the service already. Some of the filmmakers onboard include Steven Spielberg, Catherine Hardwicke, Antoine Fuqua, Guillermo del Toro, and Steven Soderbergh.
Quibi chief product officer Tom Conrad told MarketWatch that the service will have a turnstile feature that gives viewers two perspectives optimized for vertical (portrait) and horizontal (landscape) modes. This involves stitching edits together and it enables directors to “tell stories in new ways.”
