According to people familiar with the matter, Apple intends to remain focused on original shows, but plans to round out its offering with his additional content to help attract new customers, since its initial approach has apparently not resulted in the numbers it had originally hoped for. By February this year, some 10 million people had signed up to TV+, but only about half that figure actively used the service, Bloomberg says.

Meanwhile, Disney+ signed up 10 million users within a day of its US launch and now boasts more than 50 million subscribers, while Netflix added nearly 16 million new customers in the first four months of 2020 alone. Both platforms have touted back catalogs of shows people know and love, such as Friends and The Simpsons — by taking a similar approach Apple TV+ no doubt hopes to become a more serious streaming contender.

 

Quibi will share content in short clips, 10 minutes or less. Those 175 shows will be released in 8,500 “quick bites,” and they’ll be divided into three categories. Movies in Chapters will share long stories told in seven- to 10-minute segments. Unscripted and Docs will offer short, episodic shows, and Daily Essentials will give viewers five-minute news, entertainment and inspiration clips.

The first stars to appear on the platform will include Jennifer Lopez, Chrissy Teigen, Chance the Rapper, Liam Hemsworth, Sophie Turner, Lena Waithe, Nicole Richie and Reese Witherspoon.

We’ve also heard that Rick and Morty’s Justin Roiland is developing a claymation series for Quibi, ESPN will create a daily sports show and Stephen Spielberg is writing a horror show you can only stream at night. The platform will bring back Reno 911!, and it’s recreating Punk’d, Singled Out and Legends of the Hidden Temple. There’s also a series on Snap’s founding in the works.

Quibi will cost $4.99 with ads and $7.99 without ads. If you sign up on Quibi.com before April 6th, though, you can get a 90-day free trial.

The Quest, which you may remember as a short-lived ABC series from 2014, is a reality competition with teen contestants filmed in a castle outside of Vienna, Austria. It’s set in a fantasy world called Everealm, and it will include “mystical beings and magical encounters.” A few of its producers have ties to other work you may recognize, including The Lord of the Rings, Queer Eye and The Amazing Race.

In The Maze, an “adventure competition,” five teams of one adult and one teen relative will follow riddles around European cities and villages in a race to solve “the maze.” The show is being produced by The Amazing Race producers Bertram van Munster, Elise Doganieri and Mark Dziak.

“These projects take people on epic adventures, immerse them in fantastical worlds and shine a light on extraordinary people and creatures, which are all important benchmarks of our Disney+ nonfiction content philosophy,” said Agnes Chu, senior vice president of content at Disney+.

It’s not necessarily surprising that Hulu will use its Disney money to play around with new content. Even before Comcast relinquished its control to Disney, Hulu had bulked up its original content with shows like Catch 22, The Handmaid’s Tale, Shrill and more. It also announced two new Marvel shows Ghost Rider and Helstrom. Still, the service hasn’t created nearly as much original content as Netflix. As we reported earlier this year, Netflix has reason to fear Disney+. Now, it might have more reason to worry about Hulu. Though, we don’t know yet how much Hulu plans to invest or when.