Jeffrey Katzenberg launches $2-billion bet on mobile entertainment amid pandemic

Jennifer Lopez (center) is one of the mobile platform’s stars via “Thanks a Million.”—PHOTO COURTESY OF QUIBI

LOS ANGELES—On April 6, Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg will launch a $2-billion bet: Quibi, a streaming service of original series, each episode running 10 minutes or less, that you can watch on your phone only.

Quibi, pronounced kwih-bee, and is short for “quick bites,” is officially described as “the first entertainment platform designed specifically for your phone and will feature all new original content from Hollywood’s biggest stars and creators.”

Jeffrey, the former big boss at Disney and DreamWorks, and his collaborator, Meg Whitman, ex-CEO of Hewlett Packard, are proceeding with the April 6 launch, set before the coronavirus pandemic broke out and which virtually halted the world. He and Meg have something that may actually work to their advantage in this era when people are self-isolating and have a lot of time on their hands.

Quibi boasts of scripted fare from noted directors, from Steven Spielberg to Guillermo del Toro, and unscripted shows from Jennifer Lopez to Chrissy Teigen.

And the platform has one unique feature: using what is called Turnstyle technology, the video is seamless even as you rotate your phone because the shows are filmed in landscape and portrait modes.

Interviewed via BlueJeans, the mogul himself is housebound, like most of us. “I have not left my home,” he said. “Today is day 17. I have not literally walked out of my home. I’ve been happily married for 45 years. I don’t think I’ve ever been closer to my partner and my wife (Marilyn) than right now, so that’s a benefit (laughs).

He added sentiments that echo the rest of Hollywood and the world. “We’re all making the best of a terrible situation. The one thing that keeps me very motivated, ambitious and confident about the work that we’re doing at Quibi is that I think we’re about to do something that’s going to make people happy. And that makes me happy.

“What’s changed is that I used to go to an office… I had an active business and social life. Being deprived of that in these last two and a half weeks is something I miss.

“Personal connections with people are very important. I am somebody who spends lots of time … visiting people in their offices and collaborating with them. Today, the technology is allowing me to do that, but it’s being done virtually. It’s very effective and for sure it has not hindered our ability to finish and deliver everything we need to do to successfully launch Quibi.”

Jeffrey Katzenberg —RUBEN V. NEPALES

Excerpts from our video conference chat:

How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting Quibi, especially as you near your launch date on April 6? It has affected us in so many ways big and small, but let me just start with the big first.

The first was, we talked about what we had set out to do with Quibi, what was Quibi’s goal, what was our ambition for Quibi from day one. Our goal for Quibi is to inform, entertain and inspire.

So we decided three weeks ago that we would go forward with our launch, but we would make one very significant material change, which is that anybody who subscribes to Quibi in the month of April, we will give it to them for 90 days free.

How do you think Hollywood will change after this Covid-19 crisis is over? I don’t know if there’s anybody today who could actually answer your question with any real insight. I do think—only because I am an optimist—that … we will rebuild and we will be better and stronger for it.

But as a business person, are you hopeful? I am hopeful. I think Quibi is going to make people’s lives a little better.

I’m excited about it. I think we have pioneered a new way of watching quality video experience on your phone in a way that no one has ever done before. The creative and storytelling community of Hollywood—movies, television, animation, every part of it—have turned out in support of Quibi. They are making amazing content for Quibi.

What is your plan, content-wise, assuming Quibi becomes successful? When we launch, we will offer to our customers 50 programs on the first week alone. That’s over 300 episodes. There’ll be almost 250 episodes the following week. Every day after that, we will publish more than 30 original pieces of content every single day.

On April 6, the audience starts to talk back to me, Meg Whitman, content partners and team and will tell us what they like, what are the things that they are most appreciative of, what do they value the most.

What’s your business model in terms of advertising? The way Quibi works is there are two different offerings that we have. One offering is for $4.99 a month, and on that offering, there is one single ad that’s 15 seconds long or less, in front of each episode. There’s a $7.99 version of Quibi with no advertising in it.

Liam Hemsworth in Quibi’s “Most Dangerous Game”

Can you talk some more about Hollywood collaborating with you on Quibi? I can say that we have been particularly lucky, if not blessed, in that every one of the entertainment companies is an investor in Quibi, and is a supplier of content. Much of our success is going to be to the credit of these companies that so generously supported us and continue to support us. It’s everybody—Disney, AT&T/WarnerMedia, Warner Bros., Sony, Viacom/CBS, NBC/Universal.

How are you responding to this crisis affecting the community? I’m finding the best way possible for me to keep my family safe, and to do what you know I’ve always done, which is to be as supportive of my community and to be as generous as I can.

Meg Whitman and myself just contributed a million dollars to (Los Angeles) Mayor Eric Garcetti and the amazing work that he is doing here to help the most disadvantaged and vulnerable by this pandemic. We’ve actually done a program with all of the Quibi employees in which we have agreed to match dollar for dollar whatever our 265 employees want to contribute to this.

How is Quibi going to be distributed globally? As we take this globally and internationally, T-Mobile is the distribution partner for us here. We are distributed by Apple and the Apple Store for iOS and Android in Google Play. On April 6, Quibi will be available in 30 countries through iOS and Android.

I understand that you now wake up at 3:30 a.m. instead of your usual 5:30. Are you working even harder now because of the coronavirus crisis complicating your launch date? I’m going to have to do that regardless of the coronavirus. I want to make sure, at least in the weeks leading up to launch and then the three or four weeks after launch, that myself and our creative content team are getting a chance to preview every single piece of content before it goes up on the platform to ensure that it’s the best quality and in the form that we have been working so hard to do.

How do you see the future of entertainment in streaming? We’re still at the beginning of understanding how consumption habits by our customers is changing. Obviously, with the extraordinary success of Netflix, Disney+ and Apple, and HBO Max and Peacock coming, these are tremendous companies that have incredible libraries and content.

So in the next couple of years, we’re going to continue to see a lot of success and growth. I think Quibi is on a quite different path from them. I don’t think we compete with those. All of those companies—add Amazon into it—they’re all competing in the traditional one-hour TV business, which is quite different from what we’re doing in the mobile business.

E-mail: [email protected]. Follow him at: @nepalesruben/twitter.com