Roku Inc. touts plans to acquire exclusive rights to Quibi’s content

Following its shut down six months after launch, American short-form streaming platform Quibi is reportedly planning to sell its content to one of the most popular streaming media players, Roku Inc.

According to reliable sources, Roku looking to expand its content base with its ad-supported mobile app, The Roku Channel which comprises movies and other related content created by other businesses. The streaming giant is also likely to buy exclusive rights to Quibi’s library, claimed sources with knowledge of the matter.

For those unversed, Quibi was launched last year, specifically at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, to create a new category of short-form entertainment for mobile devices.  However, the company had to shut the business owing to the failure of reaching the goal of 7.4 million subscribers in 2020, forcing it to sell its technology assets and content in six months of operations.

Meg Whitman and Jeffery Katzenberg, founders of Quibi, mentioned in a comment that the company’s failure of not achieving its target is not due to a lack of effort. The duo further added that they are looking for buyers who can leverage the full potential of the platform.

Quibi reportedly intends to return funds to investors, including top Hollywood players who invested over USD 1.75 billion in the firm. The company was also paying for lifestyle and news content from partners such as CBS, the Weather Channel, Blumhouse, ESPN, BBC News, and NBC News, sources confirmed.

It is worth mentioning that Quibi had around 710,000 subscribers in the third quarter of 2020, down from 1.1 million in the previous quarter. The company was unable to attract enough paying subscribers during a fierce competition in the streaming space and had to subsequently shut down its operations, experts claimed.

The financial terms of the proposed deal between Roku and Quibi remain undisclosed, with relevant sources claiming that the deal talks could still fall apart.

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