By Hoai-Tran Bui/June 17, 2020 12:30 pm EST
Making Quibi available to watch on TV was always part of the plan, according to CEO Meg Whitman, but the pandemic has clearly accelerated those plans as the service’s original billing as the “on-the-go” streaming app wasn’t going to happen. Quibi added support for Apple’s Airplay in late May, while Google’s Chromecast and Chromecast-integrated TVs were supported with an app update in early June.
The company founded by Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg is in dire need of a subscriber boost that those TV casting devices could afford them — a disappointing launch with a slate of poorly reviewed original titles could result in the loss of half a billion dollars this year, while Quibi’s mobile app download and viewership numbers have fallen drastically short of expectations. At its current pace, Quibi is expected to have less than two million paying subscribers by April 2021, the Wall Street Journal reported. (A number that Quibi disputes.)
It’s just been a storm of misfortune for Quibi since it launched in April, just a few weeks after the coronavirus pandemic had locked down the majority of the U.S. and forced its target demographic indoors and frustrated that they couldn’t cast Quibi on TV. On top of that, it’s silly name became the butt of jokes and continues to make headlines about its poor branding to this date.
