Quibi previously tried to attract new subscribers by uploading some of its original content — in both portrait and horizontal orientations — to YouTube. However, the new tier marks the most drastic attempt to date by Quibi to get new customers. 

Despite a splashy introduction at CES 2020 and the visibility of its two co-founders, it’s safe to say Quibi likely hasn’t had the start it imagined it would after securing $1.8 billion in investor funding. As The Verge points out, while the company earned a couple of  Emmy nominations recently, it hasn’t had a success like The Mandalorian. Pricing is another likely issue. At $8 per month, the company’s ad-free offering is more expensive than Disney+. Moreover, for the same price as its ad-supported tier, you can get access to Apple TV+, which at least has content like For All Mankind and The Morning Show.

The coronavirus pandemic may have also played a part. While the stay-at-home orders that followed the pandemic’s arrival were a boon to traditional streaming services like Netflix and Disney+, they probably didn’t help Quibi with its content designed for mobile consumption. It also hasn’t helped that Quibi only recently starting allowing people to stream content to TV screens. If the company has something going for it, it’s that it has a lot of cash to weather a slow launch and make moves like the one above.    

Quibi’s biggest flaw at the moment is that none of its content stands out from the wealth of media already available to us. Chrissy’s Court is a fun riff on daytime TV court shows, but the actual cases and resolutions feel even more pointless and inconsequential than you’d expect for the genre. (And of course, John Legend shows up once in a while to flash that EGOT smile.) Most Dangerous Game, one of the service’s “Movies in Chapters,” is a remake of the classic human-hunting story — except this time it stars Liam Hemsworth and an appropriately scenery-chewing Christoph Waltz. It’s reasonably compelling, but whatever dramatic tension it builds up is destroyed by every clip’s short runtime. Thanks A Million is a show where celebrities give away $100,000 to people who’ve had a positive impact on their lives, but it comes across as more cringeworthy than heartwarming.

There are also a handful of documentaries and daily news shorts via outlets like the BBC, Telemundo and TMZ, but again none of them were exactly “must watch” entertainment. You’ll easily find similar news briefs on YouTube and podcasts. Quibi also plans to launch with 50 shows and aims to have 175 by the end of the year. There’s some notable content to look forward to from the likes of Steven Spielberg and Guillermo del Toro. But frankly, after testing the service for a bit, I’m not excited to see some of my favorite filmmakers make content that’ll be trapped on tiny phone screens and quickly forgotten.

To make things worse, since Quibi’s shows are only viewable on mobile, you can’t easily use your phone to do anything else while watching them. Live-tweeting with your friends is a bit tough when you have to constantly shuffle between different apps. I was surprised to find that I couldn’t even AirPlay Quibi shows to my Apple TV (even by mirroring my phone), and there’s no Chromecast support either. That made it tough for me to share the insanity of Dishmantled with my wife — we were forced to crowd around my iPhone 11 Pro, while my 55-inch TV sat idle in front of us. This doesn’t feel like the future of content at all. (And if it is, I want no part of it.)

And then there are the ads. Quibi says it’ll only deliver a few minutes worth of commercials every hour with its $5 subscription, but you’ll see them often since every episode is so short. Ads even pop up when you try to download a show for offline viewing, which feels like they’re just nickel and diming you. At one point, I sat through a 15 second ad to watch an episode of Dishmantled, and then another 10 second ad played when I tried to download that same episode. It certainly feels odd to be paying for the privilege of watching commercials (and yes, I know Hulu does the same thing). You can forgo ads entirely with the $8 monthly subscription, but at that point you might as well just pay a dollar more for something more robust, like Netflix.

Quibi is the worst sort of over-funded, faux-innovative startup. It pretends to be changing the media industry, but it’s not actually solving any real issues for consumers, or the landscape as a whole. What it comes down to, really, is that nobody needs Quibi — not in the way you may need your daily YouTube or Netflix fix. And it could just be that nobody really wants a dedicated mobile video service.

We may stare at our phones all day, but we also hop between devices and rely on multiple screens so we can bingewatch and chat with friends at the same time. We’re used to media adapting to us, and nobody wants to be forced to watch middling content on the smallest screen they have. 

The two weekday shows may be ideal for the daily commute. Morning Report will be a fast-paced recap that brings viewers up to speed on the latest news and Evening Report will have deeper analysis on current stories. Saturday Report will profile the people who are driving current events, and Sunday Report will take a deep dive into a single critical issue, similar to the main section of Last Week Tonight. This strategy does seem to align with how today’s viewers want to digest news quickly, and it may provide deeper insights than the often high-level blurbs found on social media.

NBC News’ programs will be joined by about 170 additional shows planned for Quibi’s first year of service. The mobile platform has plenty of industry backing, as well as buy-in from directors like Guillermo del Toro and Steven Spielberg. One of its central features is called Turnstyle, which allows the viewer to watch a show in either portrait or landscape mode — and switch between the two on-demand. Engadget found the technology to be surprisingly effective at CES earlier this year, and turned some mild skepticism into excitement.

A company called Eko is suing Quibi over allegations the service used stolen trade secrets to develop Turnstyle. “Our Turnstyle technology was developed internally at Quibi by our talented engineers and we have, in fact, received a patent for it. These claims have absolutely no merit and we will vigorously defend ourselves against them in court,” a Quibi spokesperson told Engadget. If — and how — this lawsuit affects Quibi and its shows remains to be seen.

In this special interview episode from CES 2020, Devindra chats with the minds behind Quibi — founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO Meg Whitman, Chief Product Officer Tom Conrad and CTO Ben Post — to see how it’s attempting to disrupt streaming mobile video. Meanwhile, Cherlynn speaks with Lioness founder Liz Klinger about the vibrator that finally got to officially display at CES after years of controversy.

Listen below, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you’ve got suggestions or topics you’d like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!

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Hosts: Devindra Hardawar and Cherlynn Low
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North & Terrence O’Brien

Spielberg hasn’t really said anything, according to Katzenberg. The industry figure also denied that Spielberg was heading to the Academy governing board meeting in April with an agenda to thwart streaming movies.

Provided the remarks accurately reflect of Spielberg’s intentions, they suggest that Netflix, Amazon and others won’t have to worry about their chances for Roma-level critical glory at the 2020 Oscars. Whether or not that’s true in the long run is less than certain. While it’s still relatively novel for streaming movies to win the most prestigious awards, they may compete more frequently in the future. That could increase pressure on the Academy to change the rules and keep theater-focused movies in the limelight.