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Political kingmaker Jeffrey Katzenberg said he thinks the 2024 presidential election will see President Joe Biden facing off, once again, with Donald Trump.

“I believe our current president will run again,” the DreamWorks, Quibi and venture capital firm WndrCo co-founder said during a Q&a at the WSJ Tech Live conference.

He said the chance of former President Trump as the Republican candidate is “99.9%”.

Trump has continued to tease about running, saying most recently at rally in Robstown, Texas on Saturday that he “will probably have to.”

“I ran twice. I won twice. I did much better the second time than I did before. And now in order to make our country successful, safe and glorious again, I will probably have to do it again,” he told supporters, repeating the false claim that he beat Biden in 2020.

Katzenberg was a big fundraiser for Barack Obama as well as Biden and current Los Angeles mayoral candidate,...

Bob Chapek, the Disney CEO who is under siege, hopefully does not watch much TV. If he does, he’ll see a succession of fellow CEOs who seem prone to self-destruction — Adam Neumann of WeWork, Travis Kalanick of Uber, Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos, etc. — portrayed on buzzy TV series. Viewing these shows back to back, the stolid Chapek might wonder whether the CEO is extinct as a folk hero.

To be sure, the CEOs depicted in this cycle of streamers’ series are uniformly greedy and delusional, though gifted in the hyperbole of “technospeak.” In WeCrashed, Neumann, played by Jared Leto, re-imagines renting work space as a business that “will elevate the world’s consciousness.” In Super Pumped, Kalanick (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) re-defines Uber as a “higher form of life.”

The cycle is easy to dismiss except that headlines tell us a surprising number of working CEOs seem to be falling on their swords.

Updated: The Consumer Technology Association announced late today that its CES trade show next week in Las Vegas will end one day early. The move comes amid record-setting Covid counts in many states across America.

“The step was taken as an additional safety measure to the current health protocols that have been put in place for CES,” read a statement from Cts. Attendees at the show must show proof of vaccination and a negative antigen test taken in the past 24 hours.

“As the world’s most influential technology event, CES is steadfast in its pledge to be the gathering place to showcase products and discuss ideas that will ultimately make our lives better,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, Cta. “We are shortening the show to three days and have put in place comprehensive health measures for the safety of all attendees and participants.”

Daily case numbers in Nevada have...

President Joe Biden has nominated Meg Whitman, the former CEO of Quibi, Hewlett Packard and eBay, as the next U.S. ambassador to Kenya.

Whitman ran for governor of California in 2010 as a Republican but lost to Jerry Brown. But she endorsed Biden in the 2020 presidential race and appeared at the Democratic National Convention. In her speech, Whitman said that she was “a longtime Republican and a longtime CEO” and that “Donald Trump has no clue how to run a business, let alone an economy.”

Whitman also endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Her nomination has to be confirmed by the Senate, where there is a long backlog of ambassadorial picks awaiting the go-ahead to move to their posts. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has yet to hold a hearing on Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s nomination to be ambassador to India.

Whitman also is a member of the board of...

President Biden has nominated former Quibi CEO Meg Whitman to be the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, the White House said Wednesday.

Though Whitman has long a been a Republican (she ran for Governor of California in 2010 but lost to Jerry Brown), she raised money and endorsed Biden during the 2020 presidential election campaign, and would go on to speak at the Democratic National Convention.

Whitman, who was the CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and eBay before joining up with Jeffrey Katzenberg to launch the ill-fated shortform video service, becomes the latest Biden donor and Hollywood heavyweight to secure an ambassadorship ...

President Biden has nominated former Quibi CEO Meg Whitman to be the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, the White House said Wednesday.

Though Whitman has long a been a Republican (she ran for Governor of California in 2010 but lost to Jerry Brown), she raised money and endorsed Biden during the 2020 presidential election campaign, and would go on to speak at the Democratic National Convention.

Whitman, who was the CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and eBay before joining up with Jeffrey Katzenberg to launch the ill-fated shortform video service, becomes the latest Biden donor and Hollywood heavyweight to secure an ambassadorship ...

Quibi may be gone, but the legal battles over the doomed Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman run short-form subscription video service have continued – until now.

A year and a half after Elliott Management-backed interactive-video company Eko accused the then soon-to-launch Quibi of stealing the technology behind the much touted Turnstyle feature, the likely exhausted parties have struck a deal.

Set to be filed in federal court in the next few days for official confirmation, Quibi corporate successor Qbi Holdings, LLC and Eko have agreed to end their lawsuits against each other. Details of the deal are confidential, but no money changed hands, Deadline hears.

At one point in the lawsuits, Eko had been asking for just over $96 million from Quibi.

What has changed hands today is the Turnstyle IP and tech.

Allowing viewers to literally flip their devices for whole new aspects of particular programming, the much-hyped smartphone feature...

Beloved “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actor and comic J.B. Smoove won his first-ever Emmy Award this year thanks to his work on a short-form comedy from the long-defunct streaming platform Quibi.

Smoove was honored with Best Actor in a Short-Form Comedy or Drama Series for his performance on “Mapleworth Murders,” one of the Quibi shows that has since moved to Roku after the failed network dissolved. It marked the only Emmy Award given to Quibi at the 2021 Creative Arts Emmys ceremony. Overall, the former streamer earned three total Emmy Awards in its short lifespan, all for acting.

“You know, you almost wish it was longer. I almost wish it was longer, but in wishing it was longer, is it as effective?” Smoove previously told Gold Derby. “This right here, it’s very calculated, very precise in the joke writing, very precise in their performances, which resonates more with you and you remember more.

One of the most unusual quirks of this year’s Emmy nominations was the fact that Quibi managed to land eight of them — quite a feat, given that the streamer doesn’t actually exist anymore.

Quibi shut down in December, less than a year after its much-heralded launch. The Jeffrey Katzenberg-Meg Whitman startup and its promise of delivering “quick bite” content to users exclusively on their phones became a bit of a punchline in the industry. But the programming itself was rather solid, attracting top Hollywood producers and stars. Clearly TV Academy voters found it Emmy-worthy: Last year, Quibi won two Emmys (for “#FreeRayshawn”).

This year’s three nominated Quibi shows — “Die Hart,” “Mapleworth Murders” and “Reno 911!” — live on via Roku, which acquired the Quibi programming slate earlier this year for its Roku Channel. Here’s the awkward thing: The Television Academy still lists the network for those shows as Quibi,...

Marina Zenovich’s “What Happens in Hollywood,” a docuseries about sex and power behind the scenes, will premiere later this month on the Roku Channel. Part of Roku Originals, a collection of 75 short-form series originally produced for Quibi, “What Happens In Hollywood” is a candid 10-part docuseries that examines Hollywood’s role in framing society’s overall view of sex and sexuality.

The 100-minute series features forthright interviews with industry insiders including Robin Wright, Helen Hunt, Michelle Rodriguez, Minnie Driver, Melanie Griffith, Diane Williams, Karyn Kusama, Catherine Hardwicke, Maha Dakhil Jackson, Adele Lim, Freida Pinto, Gina Prince-Bythewood and Rosemary Rodriguez.

Zenovich, an Emmy winning writer-director of “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired,” interviewed subjects on a sound stage during the pandemic between June 2020 and October 2020. While the director says that convincing Hollywood A-listers to participate in the project wasn’t easy, it turned out to be exactly the right time for...

Reno 911!, Die Hart and Mapleworth Murders, which all began as original series on the ill-starred Quibi and now stream as Roku Originals, collected a total of eight Emmy nominations.

The tally was higher than seasoned Emmy regulars like Showtime and Paramount+ (née CBS All Access), which had six apiece. Fox, with seven, also had fewer, though the pool is different for short-form fare.

Die Hart, which Roku has renewed for a second season, stars Kevin Hart as a comedian looking to break through as an action movie star. It scored acting noms for Hart, John Travolta and Nathalie Emmanuel.

Reno 911!, the long-running Comedy Central spoof that was rebooted by Quibi, was recognized in two categories. It is up for Short Form Comedy, Drama Or Variety Series as well as Kerri Kenney-Silver’s performance as Deputy Trudy Wiegel.

Mapleworth Murders got three nominations in short-form comedy, two for actors...

Late Thursday evening, HBO Max sent out a perplexing email that had subscribers — and even WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar — questioning what the heck is going on at the streaming service.

The message was brief, but very cryptic. According to screenshots, it had the subject line “Integration Test Email #1” and the body of the email simply read, “This template is used by integration tests only.”

Naturally, it left a bunch of HBO Max subscribers — and Twitter users wanting to get in on the avalanche of ensuing jokes — wondering what it meant or if it was some kind of marketing stunt (it wasn’t).

HBO Max apologized for the “inconvenience” in a tweet shortly after the email went out and even blamed an intern (who we surely hope still has a job) for the bungled email. In the immortal words of a certain fictional pop star, everybody makes mistakes and everybody has those days.

Kevin Hart’s comedy action series Die Hart, which debuted last year on short-lived streaming service Quibi before being resurrected this year as a Roku Original, has been renewed for a second season.

The show is the first Roku Original to get a renewal. The streaming purveyor used the dozens of Quibi shows it acquired in January to launch its original programming banner, with shows all streaming on the free, ad-supported Roku Channel. The first 30 Quibi alumni debuted May 20.

The second outing of the show will be titled Die Harter. Hart will return as star and exec producer but the rest of the cast will be announced down the line. John Travolta, Nathalie Emmanuel, Josh Hartnett and Jean Reno appeared alongside Hart in the first season.

Hart’s Laugh Out Loud returns as the show’s producer in partnership with Roku.

In the show, Hart plays a version of himself,...

Quibi is coming back from the dead next week… sort of.

On May 20, Roku will debut the first batch of Roku Originals — a collection of 30 shows originally produced for Quibi, the short-lived mobile entertainment startup led by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman. Roku paid substantially less than $100 million for the assets of the defunct company, including rights to more than 75 shows overall.

The shows span genres and formats, comprising scripted series, documentaries, alternative and reality programming. Among the first “Roku Originals” coming next week are Kevin Hart’s action series “Die Hart,” Emmy-winning drama “#FreeRayshawn” starring Laurence Fishburne and Jasmine Cephas Jones, the revival of Comedy Central’s “Reno 911!” and “Dummy,” starring Anna Kendrick as a woman who befriends her boyfriend’s sex doll.

The lineup also includes “Chrissy’s Court,” a “Judge Judy”-style show starring Chrissy Teigen; a reboot of MTV’s “Punk’d” hosted by Chance the Rapper...

A raft of 30 original shows developed for — and briefly distributed by — now-defunct streaming startup Quibi are getting new life as Roku Originals, with a premiere date of May 20.

The shows, which include Emmy winner #FreeRayshawn as well as series starring Kevin Hart, Chrissy Teigen, Anna Kendrick, Chance the Rapper and more, will be available on the Roku Channel. (See the full list below.) The remaining titles from the full roster of 75 titles will go live on Roku by the end of 2021.

The free, ad-supported Roku Channel offers 190 live, linear channels and 40,000 movie and TV titles, to viewers beyond Roku’s sizable base of connected devices and smart TVs. Unlike the subscription model of Quibi, the originals will be available for free. Limited advertising will be shown in between the seven- to 10-minute episodes.

On its quarterly earnings call last week, Roku said it now has 53.6 million active accounts, while the...

Exclusive: Kate Presutti has joined the team at Sofia Vergara’s Latin World Entertainment as EVP of Development. She will head development and produce projects for the company’s rapidly growing slate.

Presutti has twelve years of experience in development and production across multiple platforms, most recently as a content lead for alternative series at Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman’s digital platform, Quibi. Prior to Quibi, she was a creative producer at Google, leading strategic content initiatives and programs for emerging talent. Before this, Presutti’s career was shaped as producer in late night television, first at Jimmy Kimmel Live! and then as an early employee & creative leader on the team responsible for launching the Emmy Award winning show, The Late Late Show with James Corden.

Vergara founded Latin World Entertainment with her business partner, Luis Balaguer. Since its origination, Latin World Entertainment has become a multi-service company offering...

Roku is adding a new annex to its original content strategy: The streaming platform has acquired This Old House Ventures, the company behind the 42-year-old home-improvement television brand.

With the pact, current seasons of “This Old House” (Season 42) and “Ask This Old House” (Season 19) will be available for free on the Roku Channel as on-demand episodes. New episodes will hit the platform after they air on local PBS stations.

Roku is acquiring all of Stamford, Conn.-based This Old House Ventures’ business. That gives Roku ownership of global distribution rights and all subsidiary brands, including the “This Old House” and “Ask This Old House” TV programs, show libraries of more than 1,500 episodes, all digital assets and the company’s TV production studio in Concord, Mass. In addition to the TV programs, the company produces web, social, podcast and print content. (The Roku deal does not include “New Yankee Workshop.”)

Terms...

Roku has recruited another former employee from Quibi, the now-defunct mobile streaming subscription startup that closed its doors in 2020 just six months after launching.

Lisa Flores, previously marketing lead at Quibi, is now overseeing social media for The Roku Channel, the company’s streaming service that aggregates free, ad-supported and subscription content. She came on board earlier this month, joining the company after Roku inked a deal to acquire global rights to more than 75 original shows from Quibi, the startup headed by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman. Roku plans to stream the Quibi shows for free on the Roku Channel beginning sometime in 2021, but so far hasn’t provided a launch date.

In addition to Flores, several other ex-Quibians have also landed at Roku. Those include Brian Tannenbaum, who oversees unscripted content for The Roku Channel; Colin Davis, lead for The Roku Channel’s scripted content; Ryan Bocskay, business affairs...

Overwolf, a platform that allows creators to build, distribute and monetize in-game apps, has raised $52.5 million led by Griffin Gaming Partners and Insight Partners.

The company, which is also announcing the launch of a new platform for user-generated content, additionally received financing from Ubisoft, Warner Music Group, former Quibi CEO Meg Whitman and Gen.G co-founder Kevin Chou.

“Similar to how developers use Unity to build a game, we see Overwolf as the framework for everything Ugc related to games,” said Griffin Gaming co-founder and LionTree managing director Nick Tuosto. “Overwolf allows for one of ...

Overwolf, a platform that allows creators to build, distribute and monetize in-game apps, has raised $52.5 million led by Griffin Gaming Partners and Insight Partners.

The company, which is also announcing the launch of a new platform for user-generated content, additionally received financing from Ubisoft, Warner Music Group, former Quibi CEO Meg Whitman and Gen.G co-founder Kevin Chou.

“Similar to how developers use Unity to build a game, we see Overwolf as the framework for everything Ugc related to games,” said Griffin Gaming co-founder and LionTree managing director Nick Tuosto. “Overwolf allows for one of ...

Exclusive: The Roku Channel has a job on its hands to manage its recently acquired library of Quibi shows and has hired the shortform service’s former exec Brian Tannenbaum to help on the non-scripted side.

Deadline understands that Tannenbaum, who was a senior content executive and programming lead in the shortform streaming service’s alternative and unscripted team, has joined the technology company to head up alternative content for The Roku Channel.

Sources have told Deadline that Tannenbaum’s priority is to handle the non-scripted portion of the Quibi content, dealing with producers and talent as it plans to roll out these shows on The Roku Channel later this year.

The majority of these non-scripted shows aired on Quibi during its brief window of operation, but there were a handful that didn’t – some that were completed before it shutdown and others that hadn’t finished production. Tannenbaum will...

Roku is gearing up to stuff a bunch of exclusive and original programming into the Roku Channel — and the company has set the premiere date for its first licensed content on this front for the free, ad-supported streaming service.

“Cypher,” an FBI-set crime drama series, will premiere exclusively on the Roku Channel on March 19 in the U.S. and Canada. The seven-episode hour-long show, from Cairo-based Aroma Studios and United Bros., will be available to Roku Channel viewers for free. All episodes will drop simultaneously in binge-friendly fashion.

It’s just the beginning of a big slate exclusive content coming to the Roku Channel, which the company said doubled its U.S. audience to 61.8 million in the fourth quarter. Roku acquired global rights to more than 75 of original shows from Quibi, the startup headed by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman that went belly-up six months after launch. Roku plans to add the Quibi lineup,...

Roku continues to ride the streaming wave. The company reported fourth-quarter results ahead of Wall Street expectations as revenue shot up 58% from a year ago to just shy of $650 million.

Income from operations swung from a loss of $17.4 million in the year-earlier quarter to a profit of $65.2 million, or 13 cents a share. Wall Street analysts had expected a net loss of 5 cents a share and revenue of $619 million, according to FactSet.

Users streamed 17 billion hours in the quarter, Roku said, and more than 58 billion hours in 2020, with both numbers representing a 55% year-over-year increase. The company’s interface is in 38% of all smart-TVs made in the U.S.,

Roku has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of lockdowns due to Covid-19. The company added some 14 million active users in 2020, ending the year with 51 million active accounts. Its stock is up 37% in 2021 to date and has rocketed almost 300% over the past year.

San Francisco, Jan 9 (Ians) Streaming media player Roku has acquired defunct short-form video service service Quibis library of content, for an undisclosed sum.

The Roku Channel will bring Quibi content to streamers sometime this year.

"In 2021, the quick bites and big stories made famous on Quibi will be available to stream on The Roku Channel, giving you access to hundreds of hours of new content," the company said in a statement on Friday.

Roku said it is working on launching more than 75 shows and hundreds of hours of entertainment in 2021.

People will be able to watch Emmy award–winning content produced by the most successful studios in the business.

Programming will feature stars such as Idris Elba, Kevin Hart, Liam?Hemsworth, Anna Kendrick, Nicole Richie, Chrissy Teigen, Lena Waithe, and others.

Quibi that was launched last year announced to wind down the business and sell its content and technology assets...

Shows will play on fast-growing Roku Channel.

In a highly significant play that illustrates its expansion ambitions, Roku has acquired the majority of Quibi’s original content catalogue after the latter shut down late last year.

The Wall Street Journal reported the sale of more than 75 shows and documentaries to be valued at less than $100m.

Content will play on the free, ad-supported Roku Channel, which by the fourth quarter of last year had doubled its reach within US households to an estimated 61.8m people.

Shares in Roku surged by roughly 5% before settling in the region of $390 by mid-afternoon on the Nasdaq exchange.

Updated with stock uptick. In its biggest original programming foray to date, Roku has bought exclusive global distribution rights to the portfolio of Quibi, the recently shuttered mobile-only streaming venture fronted by Jeffrey Katzenberg.

The acquisition covers most of the Quibi library, but some daily news shows are not part of the package. A key draw for Roku is the talent, a roster including Idris Elba, Kevin Hart, Liam Hemsworth, Anna Kendrick, Nicole Richie, Chrissy Teigen and Lena Waithe. The lineup includes titles like Most Dangerous Game, Dummy and Murder House Flip.

Financial terms were not disclosed, though the valuation is understood to be less than $100 million, according to insiders. Roku shares rose 5% to $398.60 on the news. At one point early in the trading day, they reached $402.81, an all-time high.

In an interview with Deadline, Roku VP of Programming Rob Holmes told Deadline that the unusual rights flexibility offered by Quibi will stay in place,...

Roku and Quibi have officially struck a deal that will send 75+ Quibi shows to the streaming device’s The Roku Channel. They’ll be made available for free.

Technically, following an internal restructuring at Quibi, Roku acquired Quibi Holdings, LLC — that’s the company that holds all of Quibi’s content distribution rights. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

One does not need a Roku device to access The Roku Channel. It can be downloaded for free on mobile devices, which is exactly where Quibi was originally conceived to be consumed.

Here’s hoping Quibi content on Roku fares better than Quibi series on Quibi: Jeffrey Katzenberg’s radical short-form streaming service shut down after only seven months.

“The most creative and imaginative minds in Hollywood created groundbreaking content for Quibi that exceeded our expectations,” Katzenberg said on Friday. “We are thrilled that these stories, from the surreal to the sublime,...

Roku is reportedly in talks to buy the library rights to Quibi’s shows, following the short-form streaming service’s shutdown in December 2020.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that Roku aims to acquire the defunct streamer’s shows, which would be added to its free, ad-supported Roku Channel. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed to the publication, which reported that the deal could still fall apart.

A Roku representative declined to comment. A Quibi representative did not return a request for comment.

Quibi, the mobile-only streaming service that launched in April 2020, premiered dozens of original titles during its short life-span, including the Emmy-winning “#FreeRayshawn” and the Will Forte and Kaitlin Olson-led “Flipped” comedy, as well as titles starring Chrissy Teigen, Liam Hemsworth, and Christoph Waltz. Quibi also boasted revivals of old television shows, such as new takes on “Reno 911” and “Punk’d.” Quibi had seven-year licenses...

Quibi, after its high-profile collapse, may be close to landing a deal with Roku to sell rights to its multimillion-dollar lineup of original shows.

Quibi, the startup led by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, is in “advanced talks” on a pact with Roku to acquire streaming rights to the Quibi catalog, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. If the deal is consummated, Roku would add the short-form original series to the free, ad-supported Roku Channel.

Reps for Quibi and Roku declined to comment.

The Journal story didn’t include details about which Quibi shows may be part of the Roku deal or the financial terms. Quibi announced last fall that it planned to wind down operations after failing to attract a sustainable base of subscribers, leaving dozens of Quibi projects in limbo. The streaming app went dark on Dec. 1 less than eight months after launching.

Quibi does not own any...

Quibi’s vast library of short-form content may have found a new home.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Roku is nearing a deal to buy the content catalog of Quibi, the short-form mobile streaming platform launched by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman that launched in April 2020 before shuttering in December.

The WSJ reports that Roku would acquire the rights to Quibi’s content but the specific details and financial terms of the proposed deal haven’t been revealed and the deal could still fall through.

Katzenberg and Whitman’s $1.75 billion venture was set to change the way we consume content with series and films that were served in 10-minute bits or less. In January 2020, the pair shared the first look at the “turnstyle” content that featured projects with high-wattage Hollywood talent such as Guillermo del Toro, Steven Spielberg, Antoine Fuqua, Reese Witherspoon, Anna Kendrick, Liam Hemsworth, Sophie Turner, among others.

Quibi content could be getting a second life on Roku. The streaming device maker is closing in on a deal for the content library from the defunct streaming service, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

The WSJ, citing people familiar with the matter, said a deal is not done and could still fall apart. Roku would acquire Quibi’s shows to offer them exclusively to its customers. Quibi shut down after only seven months.

Representatives for both Roku and Quibi declined to comment.

The addition of Quibi’s content, which are each no longer than 10 minutes in length, would help Roku bolster its own ad-supported app, The Roku Channel. Quibi’s library would mark its first exclusive programming deal.

Quibi, led by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, debuted in April but failed to gain any kind of foothold with customers. It shut down in December. Unlike the other streaming services,...

No story in the world of short-form content attracted as much attention (and derision) as the staggering collapse of Quibi, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman’s mobile video platform dedicated solely to “quick bites” of content. Don’t write the epitaph for shorts solely based on the demise of Quibi, however. As smartphones and internet speeds have […]

The post A Tall Task for Short Films: How Festivals Are Adapting to a Changing Landscape for Viewers appeared first on /Film.

Exclusive: Disney’s flagship streaming service, Disney+, and its established sibling Hulu lead the list of streamers in total TV advertising impressions in 2020, according to ad tracking firm iSpot.

The rankings (see them in full below) define an impression as a verified playing of an ad on a TV screen for at least three seconds. While it isn’t the most complete gauge of the marketing efforts behind all services, given the array of digital means of acquiring customers and viewers, TV remains the most important reach vehicle in the ad game.

Disney+ racked up 18.3 billion impressions through December 20, a 425% increase over 2019 (a boost that isn’t totally surprising given how late its November 12 launch came in 2019). Hulu, which Disney took full control of in 2019, was a close second, with just shy of 15 billion impressions, up 144% from 2019.

Peacock and HBO Max, which launched in the spring of 2020, mustered 6.7 billion and 5.1 billion impressions,...

It's officially time to grab a bottle of your finest hooch and pour one out for Quibi, the short-form and short-lived subscription service from Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman. While Quibi still has a working website and active accounts across social media platforms, the video service that launched in April is no longer in service. With regard to social media accounts,…...

Updated; 7:28 Am The end credits have finished rolling for Quibi, the ambitious short-form subscription video service that launched last April at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

After a brief and floundering run, the Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman run app is over as of today – as anticipated.

Quibi still has a working website and a profile on major social media platforms. But the social accounts have become private and the Quibi app no longer allows users to sign in or view programming. When subscribers try to log in, they get an error message, but the app will stay on their phones until it is deleted.

Founder Katzenberg and CEO Whitman debuted their much trumpeted entry into a crowded streaming market after waves of marketing funded by $1.75 billion in startup financing, only to see it quickly fizzle.

The final exit is right on schedule for Quibi, which was initially founded by Katzenberg,...

This is the winter of discontent for Hollywood workers, as no level of seniority has been spared from the wave of mass layoffs.

Warner Bros. has been shaken by two rounds of layoffs and a wholesale restructuring that have ushered out veterans with decades of service to the Hollywood studio.

NBCUniversal has rewired the structure of its TV content production and distribution operations, leading to hundreds of job cuts. ViacomCBS has periodically shed bodies by the dozens in the year since its two halves formally tied the knot again in December 2019. AMC Networks last week disclosed it will let go of 10% of its U.S. workforce, or about 100 staffers.

Discovery Inc., Sony Pictures and Lionsgate have also let sizable numbers of staffers go in 2020.

And Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman’s short-form video streaming service Quibi shut down just six months after a much-ballyhooed launch last April, leaving thousands of executives jobless.

Despite their best efforts—and launching during a pandemic probably didn’t help—the mobile streaming service Quibi has called it quits. Last month, chiefs Jeffery Katzenberg and Meg Whitman made the difficult determination that after spending nearly $2 billion, it was time to shut down the endeavor. Quibi will be up and running until the end of the year, and we still maintain one of the best things you can see on the service is “Wireless,” from director Zach Wechter and executive producer Steven Soderbergh—a deeply unique and inventive single-setting tech thriller that transports you into the phone of the protagonist and employs the portrait and landscape perspective shifts of a phone in a way you’ve never seen before.

Continue reading Steven Soderbergh Talks The Upside Of Experiments Like Quibi, Pandemic Protocols, The Film Industry & More [Interview] at The Playlist.

In an interview with CNBC on Oct. 22, the day after disclosing that the 6-month-old mobile entertainment startup Quibi would shut down, CEO Meg Whitman described returning money to the company’s investors as “the honorable thing to do.” Unmentioned during the appearance were crewmembers who would lose their jobs during a pandemic as Quibi wound down production on its original shows.

Although many of those crewmembers long doubted the viability of the business model, Quibi’s Oct. 21 announcement that it was closing shop came as a blow in a tight job market. Several show sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that ...

In an interview with CNBC on Oct. 22, the day after disclosing that the 6-month-old mobile entertainment startup Quibi would shut down, CEO Meg Whitman described returning money to the company’s investors as “the honorable thing to do.” Unmentioned during the appearance were crewmembers who would lose their jobs during a pandemic as Quibi wound down production on its original shows.

Although many of those crewmembers long doubted the viability of the business model, Quibi’s Oct. 21 announcement that it was closing shop came as a blow in a tight job market. Several show sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that ...

There are some 34,000 Google News search results for the term "Quibi shuts down." And not to belabor a news story that's obviously been covered ad nauseam, but here's one more.

Just six months after the launch of billionaire Jeffrey Katenzenberg's and billionaire Meg Whitman's $1.75 billion entertainment venture, the platform that was meant to revolutionize content consumption on the go never really even got started. And now it's going away. Quibi was able to onboard roughly 1.5 million users on and around its launch by way of a 90-day free trial enticement. Only about 8% of those users stayed around after the trial ended, all despite the seemingly entertaining programming from a kind of who's who list of Hollywood stars.

Here are all the things that went wrong, in no particular order of importance:

1. The marketing was all about the platform and its tech. Not the shows. 

For the better part of the last two years,...

Lil Yachty’s dramedy series “Public Figures” has moved to HBO Max for development, Variety has learned exclusively.

The half-hour series was originally set up at Quibi last year, but moved over to HBO Max in the wake of Quibi shutting down. This marks the first announcement of a show previously set up at Quibi finding a new home now that the Jeffrey Katzenberg-Meg Whitman streamer has announced it will cease operations.

The creative team behind the show remains intact, with Yachty still attached to star in and executive produce the show, which is loosely inspired by his life.

“Public Figures” is described as being about what it’s like to be an aspiring influencer in New York City. Featuring an ensemble cast, the series follows a group of friends as they find themselves, lose themselves, experience epic failures and hard fought success, hook ups and break ups,...

NBCUniversal chief Jeff Shell described the company’s fledgling Peacock streaming service as “the opposite of Quibi” in that it has a broad menu of familiar content that has generated nearly 22 million sign-ups to date.

Shell, speaking Thursday on Comcast’s third quarter earnings call, said the large library of familiar shows such as “30 Rock” and dramas from the Dick Wolf shop have given Peacock good traction with users.

NBCUniversal did not offer any detail on Peacock viewership other than to say that key metrics such as the number of active monthly users and engagement have exceeded their initial forecasts. That’s a strong contrast to the short-form streaming service Quibi, led by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, which is shuttering after six months.

Peacock is enhanced by “a deep library of familiar stuff,” Shell told analysts. “It’s the opposite of Quibi. We have stuff people want to watch.

NBCUniversal streaming service Peacock has reached more than 22 million sign-ups and is the “opposite of Quibi” because of its broad-based offering of familiar content, NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell said on Thursday.

Short-form mobile-first service Quibi, led by Jefffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, recently said it was closing down.

Speaking on Comcast’s third-quarter earnings call, he cited such hit shows as dramas from Dick Wolf and others, which ensure a “deep library of familiar stuff.”

Shell said the streamer was “way ahead” in terms of sign-ups, regular usage and engagement compared with internal forecasts.

Comcast, led by chairman and CEO Brian ...

NBCUniversal streaming service Peacock has reached more than 22 million sign-ups and is the “opposite of Quibi” because of its broad-based offering of familiar content, NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell said on Thursday.

Short-form mobile-first service Quibi, led by Jefffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, recently said it was closing down.

Speaking on Comcast’s third-quarter earnings call, he cited such hit shows as dramas from Dick Wolf and others, which ensure a “deep library of familiar stuff.”

Shell said the streamer was “way ahead” in terms of sign-ups, regular usage and engagement compared with internal forecasts.

Comcast, led by chairman and CEO Brian ...

In a new interview with theSkimm, as part of their nonpartisan voter campaign Skimm 2020, California Senator and Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris speaks up about the dangers of confirming Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. theSkimm has recently released other interview videos with prominent political figures across party lines, including Hillary Clinton, Senator Marsha Blackburn and Meg Whitman.

“When we think about what the issues are at stake, there are so many that directly impact women and our rights,” she said, “which include the right for a woman to...

Despite a treasure chest of talent and money, the mobile-first shortform video service Quibi is the first major victim of the streaming wars.

The company, which is shuttering on Dec. 1, touted $1 billion in funding, big-name executive talent like founder Jeffrey Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman and snackable projects with or from the likes of Liam Hemsworth, Lena Waithe, Jennifer Lopez, Idris Elba, Anna Kendrick, Guillermo del Toro, Don Cheadle, Antoine Fuqua and Sam Raimi. But that wasn’t enough to keep it going for more than seven months.

Wall Street observers say the coronavirus pandemic is only partly to ...

Despite a treasure chest of talent and money, the mobile-first shortform video service Quibi is the first major victim of the streaming wars.

The company, which is shuttering on Dec. 1, touted $1 billion in funding, big-name executive talent like founder Jeffrey Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman and snackable projects with or from the likes of Liam Hemsworth, Lena Waithe, Jennifer Lopez, Idris Elba, Anna Kendrick, Guillermo del Toro, Don Cheadle, Antoine Fuqua and Sam Raimi. But that wasn’t enough to keep it going for more than seven months.

Wall Street observers say the coronavirus pandemic is only partly to ...

It could be quite a fire sale after Quibi’s nearly $2 billion flameout: The Jeffrey Katzenberg-founded company has tapped LionTree to manage the process of selling Quibi’s assets, following its decision to shut down.

A rep for LionTree confirmed that the firm has been enlisted by Quibi in an advisory capacity to evaluate in-bound inquiries from interested parties. New York-based LionTree, led by CEO Aryeh Bourkoff, is a boutique investment bank and financial advisory firm specializing in the media and telecommunications sector.

On Wednesday, Quibi announced that its board had decided to shut down the company, less than seven months after launching in April. The startup, led by Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman, told customers Thursday that it expects to shut off the streaming service “on or about” Dec. 1 — but that it didn’t know whether any of Quibi’s originals would be available on other platforms after that.

On Wednesday afternoon, Jeffrey Katzenberg donned a suit and tie and joined an emotional video conference with the staff of Quibi from his Bel Air home. Together with Quibi CEO Meg Whitman, he confirmed the news that had been swirling for the past few hours: Their 6-month-old mobile video service would be shutting down after struggling to attract an audience for its shortform entertainment programming.

Many Hollywood observers had been predicting Quibi’s demise since the moment Katzenberg first made his plans for the ambitious startup known, but that didn’t make the news any less surprising to the employees who ...

On Wednesday afternoon, Jeffrey Katzenberg donned a suit and tie and joined an emotional video conference with the staff of Quibi from his Bel Air home. Together with Quibi CEO Meg Whitman, he confirmed the news that had been swirling for the past few hours: Their 6-month-old mobile video service would be shutting down after struggling to attract an audience for its shortform entertainment programming.

Many Hollywood observers had been predicting Quibi’s demise since the moment Katzenberg first made his plans for the ambitious startup known, but that didn’t make the news any less surprising to the employees who ...