Quibi Picked the Wrong Time in History to Make Its Debut
A new streaming service, Quibi, is only available to view on your phone and it came out during a pandemic when everyone's staying at home, watching streaming services on much bigger screens.
In case you haven't noticed, and maybe you haven't, Quibi made its debut recently with a new streaming platform that sounds original enough; you can only watch it on your phone, each viewing element and/or episode is less than ten minutes long, and it's free for the first 90 days ($4.99 after with ads/$7.99 with no ads). Unfortunately, the timing of its debut happened when other streaming services are dropping more content than ever due to the Covid-19 outbreak, and those are available on your much larger television screens.
Another downside to the new streaming service is the lack of any web browser support whatsoever. You can't view any content on your desktop, nor can you screenshot any of it on your phone. If you try, you're just left with a black screen from your screenshot. It's impossible to share any of the content from Quibi via memes and gifs on social media due to the fact that it isn't allowed. That's been a huge draw for several other shows on other streaming services such as Baby Yoda from 'The Mandalorian' on Disney+ or Tiger King on Netflix. That's one more missed opportunity for Quibi.
However, that's not to completely dismiss the new streaming service altogether as there is plenty of compelling content that's already been released. 'Reno 911!' is back for a 7th season on the new platform, starting in May. 'Survive', featuring Sophie Turner, (Sansa Stark from 'Game of Thrones') is a new drama worth watching as well. 'The Fugitive' concept is being renewed with a new story as Kiefer Sutherland tries to track down a man wrongly accused of a terrorist attack, and 'Most Dangerous Game' with Liam Hemsworth and Christoph Waltz is loaded with plenty of suspense. There's a lot more content, but that's just what I've either started watching this week or has at least piqued my interest. So there is content worth watching on Quibi.
It seems that maybe the worst mistake Quibi made was launching at the time that it did, which isn't necessarily their fault. They probably should have found a way to wait until after a pandemic when television streaming is so important to so many. It's unfortunate, but hopefully the new streaming service has some legs to it. As someone who watches more streaming content than should be allowed for anyone, it's always nice to have that many more options.
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