Roku has stepped in and purchased Quibi's entire library of shows for around $100 million.
Excluded from this deal are daily shows and some ongoing reality content. Roku VP of Programming Rob Holmes told Deadline, “We preserved all of what was in the existing agreements. We’re excited about that. It’s great, high-quality, top talent and high-quality content.”
That means the rights to the shows will continue for seven years, then revert back to creators. Still, if any of these shows get traction, it would not be unusual to see Roku try to produce more of them.
All the shows will be available for free but will come with commercials. They will be housed on the Roku Channel.
“It’s the same availability of content, the same presentation of content,” Holmes told Deadline. “But as we spent a bunch of time with it, it really works, but they’re just TV episodes. I think their premise was, you have 10 minutes, you would watch it. Our view is, this is TV, someone’s going to spend half an hour or an hour or two hours watching it because it’s just that compelling.”
He added, “You don’t usually see content like this for free in streaming.”
One major change is that Roku will probably mash together some of the shorter shows into longer episodes, favoring that kind of viewing experience within the channel. It gives more room for advertisers and episode "ends" might be natural commercial breaks.
This slew of content is a major get for Roku, and one they didn't have to put any time or effort into developing. Just cash.
'Dummy'Credit: Quibi
Quibi was an interesting experiment that cost a lot of money and never found traction. I'm glad the creators and talent behind these shows will have an opportunity to reach an incredibly broad audience.
Are there any Quibi shows you're looking forward to watching on Roku? Let us know in the comments.
