But… but… but… you can’t turn your TV on its side!
Maybe you can’t.
If I didn’t hate the idea of Quibi I’d watch this.
So I’ve spent some time with Quibi and I quite like the shows. My wife & I watched all of Dummy with Anna Kendrick and it was really entertaining. Watched the first few episodes of Reno 911 and it is awesome to have that show back. Not sure I’ll renew after 90 days but the content is very good.
Also, the shows all look better in landscape than portrait (at least those that I’ve tried so far)
Same; it’s been perfectly fine. Agua Donkeys has been my favorite so far. I’m also unsure about paying every month but I’d certainly turn it on for a month every now and then as I do with the other services.
Not sure how many other shows do this, but Reno 911 is using the phone orientation thing in very clever ways. In many scenes you can see multiple angles. For example right now on the episode I’m watching (5), someone is watching a stream on their phone. In landscape it shows the guy looking at his phone. In portrait it shows the actual phone content. Pretty neat gimmick. Also, I forgot how much I missed this show.
Big thumbs up for Quibi for me so far.
I mean, that article is just one damning quote after another. Yes, who could’ve foreseen that people preferred to watch created content on their televisions if they could? And who could’ve foreseen that people liked to share screencaps and gifs of the content they watch on social media?
As someone on Twitter put very well, “That’s like the most 2008 mistake ever.”
Katzenberg sure sounds like he’s got a handle on this. It’s all coronavirus’s fault apparently. You know, the thing which means hundreds of millions of people are suddenly doing lots of media streaming.
As far as damning quotes go, this is pretty awesome:
Hundreds!
This is what will really doom Quibi. Less ad revenue = fewer shows = fewer customers = less ad revenue.
The spiral has begun.
It’s too bad they (supposedly) decided to slow down their content rollout. I had a good Quibi habit going with the funny/dramatic scripted shows, but I’ve been out of things to watch for a couple weeks now. I’d like it to be good enough to subscribe to.
My neighbors were probably wondering why I was cackling like a maniac while walking my dog today.
Vulture with a feature on the history and state of the service.
People have wondered why Katzenberg and Whitman, in their late and early 60s, respectively, and not very active on social media, would believe they have uniquely penetrating insight into the unacknowledged desires of young people. When I ask Whitman what TV shows she watches, she responds, “I’m not sure I’d classify myself as an entertainment enthusiast.” But any particular shows she likes? “ Grant, ” she offered. “On the History Channel. It’s about President Grant.”
Katzenberg is on his phone all the time, but he is also among the moguls of his generation who have their emails printed out (and vertically folded, for some reason) by an assistant. In enthusing about what a show could mean for Quibi, Katzenberg would repeatedly invoke the same handful of musty touchstones — America’s Funniest Home Videos, Siskel and Ebert, and Jane Fonda’s exercise tapes. When Gal Gadot came to the offices and delivered an impassioned speech about wanting to elevate the voices of girls and women, Katzenberg wondered aloud whether she might become the new Jane Fonda and do a workout series for Quibi. (“Apparently, her face fell,” says a person briefed on the meeting.)
At a casting session this year, while watching a tape test for a Daily Essentials host who was a Black man with an Afro, Katzenberg said the man didn’t look “authoritative.” Content executive Shawna Thomas, an Emmy-winning journalist from Vice News and NBC, was used to the political incorrectness endemic to casting conversations, but as a discussion of the candidate’s hair went on and on, she felt increasingly uncomfortable and left the room to avoid becoming visibly upset. That evening, she and Katzenberg had a long phone chat in which she explained why she makes a point of wearing her hair in a natural style on TV — so that, say, a little Black girl watching MSNBC could see someone authoritative who didn’t conform to the predominant white American standard of beauty. Afterward, she felt Katzenberg had understood her. “The discussion was frank, honest, and positive and might not have gone as well at another company,” Thomas says.
Katzenberg and Whitman also point out that they stocked the Quibi offices with young employees who are in the demographic they’re trying to reach. But “there was an incredible lack of knowledge of the audience and dismissiveness of the audience,” another ex-Quibite says. “A thing Jeffrey always says is ‘I’m not a child or mother, but I made movies children and mothers loved. I know millennials better than millennials.’ ” Katzenberg had at times been well served by his intuition, and he remained convinced of its acuity. “I say, ‘Where’s your data?,’ ” Whitman says of their contrasting styles. “He says, ‘There is none. You just have to go with your gut.’ ”
That flushing sound you hear is a LOT of money.
Let’s invite her to the forum.
Given her taste in TV I thought she was going to clarify that the Grant show was Lou Grant.
Lordy. Can this thing that’s clearly going to fail just go ahead and fail already?
I think Quibi is making a mistake with its free trial expiration flow. There’s no way to look at what’s available to watch without paying. They should handle it like Netflix where you can get as far as hitting play on a show before being prompted to pay.
They needed to do what Hulu did and be free for a long time with ads, and then introduce premium ad-free options or switch over to pay-only after they’ve got a bunch of fans. But you need to get people watching and loving your service.
That is exactly the first thought I had too.
Hey, at least that would be quality TV, even if 40 years old.