Core Post #5: Convergence Television and the Launch of Quibi

While I haven’t downloaded the app or streamed any of its content, I’ve been loosely following stories of Quibi’s roll-out over the past week. For those slightly less informed than I (which is to say, pretty uninformed to begin with), Quibi is a new subscription streaming platform helmed by Jeffrey Katzenberg. Viewed as the first “Silicon Valley” foray into TV production, the platform raised $1.75 billion in seed funding before its launch and currently has about 50 original programs available for streaming. These range from reboots of Reno 911! and Punk’d to food and travel programming. Major draws of the platform include its significant star power (Jennifer Lopez, Idris Elba, Offset, Kevin Hart, and Chrissy Teigen are all involved) and the bite-sized length of its episodes that all run under ten minutes. The difference between Quibi and services such as Hulu or Netflix is that the former is available for mobile exclusively.

That Quibi’s launch dovetails with our reading of Caldwell’s article on convergence TV seemed a useful coincidence. In particular, I was taken by Caldwell’s claim that in our recent model of platforming, streaming, and distributed entertainment commerce “TV has argued for a low resolution” (51), replacing “programs” with “content” (49). While none of these terms seem especially unique to Quibi’s model, I am curious about the means by which the mobile-only platform will succeed in keeping viewers engaged beyond their airing. Rather than the “convergence” model of distributed entertainment, merchandizing, and others sites of user intimacy, Quibi seems to instead be working off of a model of quick and dirty consumption, looking for breadth rather than depth of viewership. Each series only seems to have a handful of episodes currently available and, if logic serves, would take an hour or two to watch in their entirety. Will Quibi be able to keep up with viewer demand and the endless stream of content available on more amateur mobile platforms such as TikTok?

Equally unclear in Quibi’s model are the kinds of typical “institutional interactions” (57) that contour its programming. What was the pitch process for the app? And what might we understand as a mark of the interests of its angel or seed investors? Beyond the stakes of advertisers, which include Google, Anheuser-Busch, Walmart, PepsiCo and Procter & Gamble, I am curious to think how the “start-up” model of TV production on this scale might influence aesthetic decision-making. Does Quibi employ writers, actors, and content developers? Producers? Showrunners? All of the current job opportunities at the platform relate to advertising, communications, and software development. As for Quibi’s success, I am not holding my breath.