After much hype and raising $1.75 billion, mobile platform Quibi debuted yesterday, in the middle of a pandemic. Per Sensor Tower, it was downloaded just over 300,000 times in its first 24-hour period, reports The Wrap.
In comparison to others streamers, it had six times as many downloads as HBO Now, when it launched five years ago, but only 7.5 percent of the 4 million downloads of Disney+. Then again, Disney+ kicked off with “The Mandalorian” and an impressive content library.
The trade pub reports Quibi was the fourth-most-popular free app in Apple’s App Store in the U.S., on Tuesday.
To entice users, it is offering a 90-day free trial of Quibi. After that, users will pay $4.99/month with ads and $7.99/month ad-free. The start-up includes A-listers, such as Steven Spielberg, Jennifer Lopez, Sam Raimi, Reese Witherspoon and Steven Soderbergh, which founder Jeffrey Katzenberg believes will aid its future success.
In fact, Katzenberg is playing the long game.
“One thing that’s happened to me in 45 years of being in Hollywood and in this industry is, I’ve never seen an instance where real quality entertainment hasn’t found an audience,” Katzenberg told Next TV. “Whether we find it on the first day or 10th day or 200th day, if you make it and it’s good, they will come.”
Quibi slated 175 original short-form series its first year, totaling more than 8,500 original episodes.
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