When Quibi was charged at CES this year, the first mobile streaming service called "instant bite" dropped its Turnstyle signature technology the future of broadcasting-A feature designed for people who can leave their computers out of pocket at any time and stream high-quality video no matter what their tool says. It's fun if it's not a trivial concept. To the point where the service has promised a decent streaming experience and stellar content and star power, the service has gone. But Quibi's stubborn insistence on reducing video on mobile makes it feel like a lot of that production and storytelling is being wasted on teeny screens. I want to like Quibi, I just wish I had more visuals.
The streaming service focuses on creating short, 10-minute episodes or less of content that users can watch during their "in," or while waiting in line, starting work, or taking a break. from something else. The concept of the service was developed by Dreamworks alum Jeffrey Katzenberg and suggested a complete jaw drop $ 2 billion in revenue before being introduced. Admittedly, Quibi initially sounded like a Juicero broadcast. What was the point of this service if, technologically, you could watch anything you like on your phone at any time for any length of time? Why cut content that produced high value so the pieces are big? And who the hell was that? Having spent several days with the app, I can safely say that the app's content is excellent and its format is admirable. But I'm not sure Quibi is for everyone.
Quibi
What's up?
The first mobile streaming service with 10 "quick bites" of 10 minutes or less.
PRICE
$ 5 with ads or $ 8 for free travel.
AS
Good content with a high production value.
NOTE
No support for big screens – except for the iPad.
Quibi has two main layers: the ad-supported model of $ 5 per month and the ad-free model of $ 8 per month. Quibi's defining feature is a technology that calls Turnstyle that allows users to seamlessly view full-screen shows in every view and image by simply turning their phone in the direction they prefer. One of the benefits of Quibi is that each series is a direct shot of both views, meaning that looking either way will work for you a good viewing experience. It also means that the rifle will not be planted incorrectly or reduced to size, the smaller frames are in the game boxes where the video is in the portrait.
This is a feature that is ready to be broadcast on the phone – but not much. Turnstyle may not be the thing that people spend extra money on at home, where they can either hold their phone in one setting or counter it. (I tried to rotate the vertical and horizontal orientation while using Quibi at home, and trust me when I said it was aging quickly.) Turnstyle image format is usually a crop of plants to zoom in on specific details, such as the close-up of a character's face. It comes with some detail manipulation, such as wall posters or subtle visual references from in the turn of the characters in the background. This would be a great investment for some viewers, but it was mine.
Turnstyle isn't the only clean thing about Quibi, however. For one thing, it managed to secure a shocking talent program – everyone from Liam Hemsworth and Chance the Rapper to Steven Spielberg. But Quibi also plans to use just about every tool it can access – including the phone's clock, gyroscope, touchscreen, and GPS – to discuss practical issues that are directly relevant to what you do and how you watch video all day. Quibi's romantic series Hot Drop, for example, will include viewer interaction. And an upcoming series from Steven Spielberg will watch only at night depending on where you are – the nature of the parlor's trick was meant to reinforce how "terrifying" the series was. Maybe it will work! But it's important to know that this has already been done, including Tinder & # 39; s horny foray in the broadcast.
The content is smart, some phones are neat and better suited to the short format. We are saved, for example, a drama starring Sophie Turner and Corey Hawkins about a woman experiencing trauma and one of Quibi's movies in chapters, used the format successfully to solidify the suspension of each 10-minute episode. Because of this – and thanks in no small part to its successful star appearances, this series is extremely dangerous. After watching the first three episodes of the series, We are saved is one of the app's most powerful content offerings. (The show won't be for everyone, but the series comes with warnings that cause exposure to mental health problems.)
Ten minutes and the length of the episode is appropriate for the show Punk & # 39; d, hosted by Chance the Rapper. When Street Light Continues– The secret of the 90s-nostalgic murder of teenagers featuring Chosen Jacobs and Queen Latifah and one of the "directed" movies – it also manages to bite itself easily, if not at times, and tends to bizarre machines that appear to aim at horror rather than enhance the story in any meaningful way. Also produced by the Quibi tent It's dark– Moderating Will Forte and Kate Olson as Jann and Cricket – managed to narrow the amount of fantastic stories in six to eight categories. (That doesn't come as a shock, though, as long as the series is a member Funny or mortal combined. The production company has been creating shortie comic content for over a decade, thanks to god.)
The other series is rumored to be coming in short form. Quibi's home improvement series Murder House Flip-What is it exactly as it sounds, a series in which killer homes are developed and donated, uh, the second life to mention – and a series I personally attended the prospects are too high, he felt rushed despite dedicating three "episodes" to a single reboot. The series is just trying to do too much to do just one thing all right, something I suspect will be the problem with most of the shows or movies that come to Quibi and can scale short formats with conflicting, high-quality production stories.
But there is 50 original titles to introduce the service in its inauguration and at the end of the year – in other words, a full service truck for a specific service. A three-month trial is available in April and free access for the year T-Mobile customers it means that most consumers will have the opportunity to see what service they have to offer before paying a monthly subscription fee to Quibi. This same approach has been adopted by the recently introduced streaming services Disney + and Apple TV +, and it's a smart way to lure paid subscribers who don't forget to cancel their accounts or simply deduct a monthly fee of $ 5 or $ 8 and continue to pay for a service they probably wouldn't have subscribed to if they hadn't been paid for a while. .
Discovery of any of these 50 shows – and much later, is a little, though, and I found myself constantly falling in love with a show I already knew about but never by accident. On the service home screen, which Quibi calls Today For You, shows are shown as individual cards you have to go through to find something to look at. Quibi told Gizmodo that this is "the fastest and most reliable way to find something fun to watch for your average time." It's a little confusing at first compared to the feed of, say, Netflix or Prime Video, where you can watch many articles at once. But Quibi says its algorithm will download the past, ignore it, and close early on the video to help. The company has also added machine learning to predict what viewers want to see until the time of day to be “right in your life and your habits” – and they will have to your habits if you want the algorithm to work. Unlike many other popular streaming services, Quibi limits user profiles to a single account, which means that each user should have their own Quibi registration. The service does support unlimited downloads, however.
And that brings us to Quibi's biggest obstacle right now. At a time when people spend more time at home, it may be difficult for some viewers to approve the streaming service of almost a cellphone if – again – they're already getting bigger screens in their homes. Quibi's founders told Gizmodo at CES in January that the service was available it meant watching between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., as a daily commute or while waiting for the lunch order (other than that, in the upcoming Spielberg series). In theory, Quibi was perfect for those between five or ten minutes of rest every day for people who work at home right now. But again, it's hard to imagine that people will want to be viewed on mobile once they have one the best streaming experience on the larger screen available to them. Quibi's excellent feature – that it is suitable for life when traveling – means that it may have difficulty debating its current use case.
That said, many viewers do broadcast on their phones—especially young people– And Quibi in many ways feels like a Snapchat generation streaming service. Multiple service displays (e.g. Punk & # 39; d, When Street Light Continues, and the natural writings by Reese Witherspoon Fierce Queens) feel like you're directly in this demographic. The social features used and confirm this suspicion. Each landing of each series includes those hard news and other "everyday essentials," as Quibi calls them, with the "Cast and Crew" section at the bottom of the page linking media related accounts with IMDb or anchor accounts.
In the end, the thing that bothered me most about Quibi is also the point of service. As the first intended product, you can't stream an app. You also won't be able to access it from your laptop, PC, or smart TV (it works on your iPad, but the iPhone app version and not the native iPad itself).
Asked if the service has plans to launch a new tablet app, the speaker said Quibi would "listen to our users after they have announced how they would like to use Quibi shows." Personally I would have liked the ability to throw another series on my Apple TV to watch it on a bigger, bigger screen at home, but for now, Quibi seems determined to emphasize the mobile experience. This sounds like a great deal of caution on the part of a company to win over older viewers. But then again, the old one is not its intended demo.
READ
- Quibi is the first mobile streaming app for "instant bite" content intended to be viewed on those small breaks throughout the day.
- The content is quality, but some series feel much faster and more suitable in shorter format than others.
- Each user will have to purchase their own account.
- The service allows unlimited views for offline viewing.
- Many of the app's content and other features sound like a lot to teenagers.
- You cannot stream video or stream it on any non-mobile or iPad device, which means this is not a service for people who like to stream to a larger screen.
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