The Short Form Streaming Service QUIBI Is Officially Shutting Down

The short-form streaming service Quibi, named for its style of “quick bite” entertainment, has released the news that six months after its launch, the service is shutting down. Deadline reports that the streamer’s start-up capitalist Jeffrey Katzenberg and its CEO Meg Whitman are speaking with the investors to explain their decision, as well as talk about “exploring options including selling content or the entire service in the hopes that a buyer emerges.”

The process of shutting down is expected to take several months, and subscribers will hear official news soon. The closure is expected to put approximately 200 employees out of work, during a difficult time for the entertainment industry. In these early stages, no one knows yet where the content from the streamer will land, namely the projects from big-name creators like Stephen Spielberg, Guillermo del Toro and Antoine Fuqua.

It’s a bummer that it doesn’t seem like the streamer got much of a fair shake, but it was, unfortunately, a tough time to start a streaming service that was focused on “on the go” content in the year where fewer of us were on the go than ever.

Hopefully, those shows that were featured on the streamer get another platform to call home, as there were quite a few that looked really interesting and high quality.

Are you a Quibi subscriber? Are you bummed to see it go?

Here’s a statement made by Katzenberg and Whitman:

We started with the idea to create the next generation of storytelling and because of you, we were able to create and deliver the best version of what we imagined Quibi to be. So it is with an incredibly heavy heart that today we are announcing that we are winding down the business and looking to sell its content and technology assets.

Quibi was a big idea and there was no one who wanted to make a success of it more than we did. Our failure was not for lack of trying; we’ve considered and exhausted every option available to us.

While the result was not what any of us wanted, we did accomplish a number of things and we are very proud of what the talented Quibi team has built with the blood, sweat, and tears that they poured into this business over these past two years.

We opened the door to the most creative and imaginative minds in Hollywood to innovate from script to screen and the result was content that exceeded our expectations. We challenged engineers to build a mobile platform that enabled a new form of storytelling — and they delivered a groundbreaking and delightful service. And we were joined by ten of the most important advertisers in the world who enthusiastically embraced new ways for their brands to tell their stories.

With the dedication and commitment of our employees and the support we received from our investors and partners, we created a new form of mobile-first premium storytelling.

And yet, Quibi is not succeeding. Likely for one of two reasons: because the idea itself wasn’t strong enough to justify a standalone streaming service or because of our timing.

Unfortunately, we will never know but we suspect it’s been a combination of the two. The circumstances of launching during a pandemic is something we could have never imagined but other businesses have faced these unprecedented challenges and have found their way through it. We were not able to do so.

Which brings us to this moment. As entrepreneurs our instinct is to always pivot, to leave no stone unturned — especially when there is some cash runway left — but we feel that we’ve exhausted all our options. As a result we have reluctantly come to the difficult decision to wind down the business, return cash to our shareholders, and say goodbye to our colleagues with grace. We want you to know we did not give up on this idea without a fight.

Our goal when we launched Quibi was to create a new category of short-form entertainment for mobile devices. Although the circumstances were not right for Quibi to succeed as a standalone company, our team achieved much of what we set out to accomplish, and we are tremendously proud of the award-winning and innovative work that we have produced, both in terms of original content and the underlying technology platform. Over the coming months we will be working hard to find buyers for these valuable assets who can leverage them to their full potential.

We want you to know that we got up every day and genuinely loved coming to work with the most remarkable and passionate team that we have ever assembled. We will be forever proud of the extraordinary partnership we were able to forge between the best of Hollywood and Silicon Valley.

All that is left now is to offer a profound apology for disappointing you and, ultimately, for letting you down. We cannot thank you enough for being there with us, and for us, every step of the way.

Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman