Full stream ahead

Roku scoops up short-vid shows from failed Quibi

Jeffrey Katzenberg’s video streaming startup may be dead, but its shows will live on.

Streaming-device maker Roku has snapped up the majority of Quibi’s multimillion-dollar library of original short-form programming in a deal that will give new life to its star-studded library of shows featuring Kevin Hart, Idris Elba, Jennifer Lopez and Nick Jonas.

Roku on Friday said it nabbed the exclusive global rights to 75 shows from the doomed startup. They will be available to watch this year on the Roku Channel, which is free for Roku customers and includes a mix of old movies, such as “Inception,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, as well as TV reruns of “The Bachelorette” and “Dennis the Menace.”

Terms of the deal, first reported by The Wall Street Journal earlier this week, were not disclosed.

The deal could help boost Roku’s already booming business as it competes head-to-head for eyeballs against Amazon Fire TV. The streamer this week revealed it added 14 million accounts in 2020 as homebound consumers flocked to their TVs for entertainment. Roku now boasts 51 million accounts, up from just 13.4 million in 2016, making it the topstreaming platform along with Amazon Fire TV.

Quibi shut down in October after just six months in existence. The highprofile startup founded by Katzenberg, Walt Disney’s former chairman, proved the exception to the growing demand for streaming as the coronavirus prompted more people to sit in front of their TVs instead of their phones.

Quibi’s videos, each under 10 minutes, were geared toward people on the go.

Variety on Friday said Roku will acquire shows like dystopian thriller “Most Dangerous Game,” starring Liam Hemsworth and Christoph Waltz; dark comedy “Flipped” with Will Forte and Kaitlin Olson; plane-crash drama “Survive,” starring Sophie Turner and Corey Hawkins; comedy “Dummy,” starring Anna Kendrick as a woman who befriends her boyfriend’s sex doll, and “#FreeRayshawn,” a police drama from executive producer Antoine Fuqua, for which Laurence Fishburne and Jasmine Cephas Jones each won short-form Emmy Awards.

“Today’s announcement marks a rare opportunity to acquire compelling new original programming that features some of the biggest names in entertainment,” Roku’s vice president of programming, Rob Holmes, said.

Roku has bought up most of the short-form programming from Jeffrey Katzenberg’s failed streaming startup Quibi, which featured shows such as “Crissy’s Court,” “Punk’d” and “Bad Ideas With Adam Devine” (clockwise from top).