Roku Becomes Exclusive Home of Quibi Content
Paul Dailly
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Roku is getting a content injection.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, 75 short-form shows such as Survive, The Stranger, and Most Dangerous Game will be resurrected on The Roku Channel.
"We are thrilled that these stories, from the surreal to the sublime, have found a new home on The Roku Channel," Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg said in a statement, confirming the news.
Rumors swirled earlier this week that Roku could be in the running to snap up the content left out in the cold from Quibi's sudden closure late last year.
The various shows will be ad-supported on Roku, but it's unclear whether this could lead to additional seasons of the ones that were renewed before the closure.
Shows like Most Dangerous Game and Chrissy's Court had landed orders for additional episodes and were left in the lurch when Quibi's founders announced it would be closing down last year.
Quibi was a big-budget experiment that failed. Launching exclusively on mobile devices in 2020, it boasted shows with A-List talent.
The project had two tiers -- ad-supported and ad-free -- but neither were free to consumers, something that was deemed a big swing, especially considering how small the episodes actually were.
Quibi's manta was big stories in small chunks, essentially trying to reel in the Youtube audience.
Ahead of the shutdown announcement, Quibi did make its way to Android and Apple TV devices, but it was too late to save the experiment.
“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,” the announcement of the closure said.
Quibi launched in a turbulent streaming market amid the COVID-19 pandemic, so it was facing an uphill battle from the get-go.
Roku will launch the content later this year.
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Paul Dailly was an Associate Editor for TV Fanatic.Follow him on X.
