The legacy of Quibi will live on inside of the Roku Channel, which thankfully now has HBO Max.
According to Deadline, Roku has acquired the billon dollar failure streaming service Quibi’s library of content. Huzzah.
Roku VP of Programming Rob Holmes told Deadline they have preserved all the existing agreements that Quibi made with their talent, which will revert back to the owners after seven years. “We preserved all of what was in the existing agreements,” Holmes said. “We’re excited about that. It’s great, high-quality, top talent and high-quality content.”
The programming will be available for free starting later this year. Shows will have advertising, as they did on the $5-a-month Quibi service, and they will be housed on the Roku Channel. The hub for free and premium streaming channels, including 150-plus free live, linear offerings, has become a mainstay of the company’s strategy since Roku launched it in 2017. By the fourth quarter of 2020, it was being viewed by households representing an estimated 61.8 million people, the company said, double its reach at the end of 2019.
“The most creative and imaginative minds in Hollywood created groundbreaking content for Quibi that exceeded our expectations,” said Quibi Founder Jeffrey Katzenberg. “We are thrilled that these stories, from the surreal to the sublime, have found a new home on The Roku Channel.”
Yeah, thrilled is certainly the word I would use if someone decided to clean up the poop I made on the ground. I wouldn’t be so frustrated about this if Quibi weren’t a $1.75 billion dollar experiment that was only trying to capitalize on the already existing flood of streaming services that are on the market.
Katzenberg and Meg Whitman may not have been able to predict the pandemic, but when I think of how that kind of money could have helped the average person survive what has been one of the darkest moments in our modern American history, it all seems worthless. The best thing to come out of Quibi was that weird Anna Kendrick sex-doll show that helped introduce me to Amanda the Jedi’s YouTube channel last year.
There are so many creative ways that streaming and web media could be making a difference and leveling the playing field for new creators. Remember when YouTube only really let you have 10-minute run times, and that meant you had to be creative with your time because those minutes meant something?
Quibi is officially dead, but it will live on as another weird moment in 2020. In some ways, Quibi has the distinction of being the ultimate symbol of that cursed year. So much promise, so much planning, and so much finally on the line, screwed over by the massive mishandling of COVID-19. Now we just need Roku to come and save us all.

(via Deadline, image: Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images for Quibi)
Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!
—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—
Published: Jan 8, 2021 04:16 pm