The thing about watching Most Dangerous Game in 7 to 9 minute chapters is that after awhile it becomes a case of “you can’t just watch one.”

As CEO of Dreamworks Animation and as chairman of Walt Disney Studios, Jeffrey Katzenberg is responsible for the following hits being made:

The Little Mermaid

Beauty and the Beast 

Aladdin

The Lion King

Shrek

Madagascar

Kung Fu Panda

Monsters vs. Aliens 

How to Train Your Dragon

It’s therefore curious why he would start a company to stream short 10 minutes or less content that’s only available on your phone.

And then I started watching their chapter-based movie, Most Dangerous Game. It’s an action film with a handful of characters, which lends itself to distinct chapter breaks. The first two chapters set up the premise and characters; the remaining thirteen give edge-of-your-seat action and conflict.

It’s an intriguing idea to break a movie into distinct chapters of seven or eight minutes each. Enough for a cubicle worker to catch a chapter or two when the boss isn’t looking or when on a lunch break.

And watching a chapter or two at home on your phone is surprisingly not a big deal: you’ll be spending only seven or eight minutes to watch one.

I think I started watching the movie on Sunday evening and finished up the last four chapters on Thursday evening, so maybe four to five days to complete the movie.

Another dynamic, which I hadn’t considered, is personal viewing. If you’re a couple and decide what to watch together on the “big TV,” it may be a guilty pleasure to sneak in a chapter before bed.

So when is a movie a TV series? Did you think of it as a movie or was your brain thinking TV?

could you give a separate and detailed review on Quibi? I'm very interested in it but the only real news is the funding. I don't see much traction on social media yet.

I would suggest following the topic Quibi to stay up to date with my latest reviews—of which there are several—on content streaming on this new platform.

Click the below link and then the FOLLOW button to add the topic to your FOR YOU timeline.

perfect missed this!

So when is a movie a TV series? Did you think of it as a movie or was your brain thinking TV?

It felt like a movie from the get go, in part because the lead is a movie star. It also clocks in at around 120 minutes total, which made me assume it was a movie.

Beyond that, it has become harder to define what makes a story a movie verus a tv show. We watched a two episode Agatha Christie murder mystery on Prime. If they had cut out the recap at the beginning of episode two and merged them together I would call it a movie.

So basically Netflix binging in really small bites, hmmm, will check it out. Thanks!

David, dunno if you subscribe to the Walk Street Journal (or get it through Apple News), but if you do this is quite fascinating:

Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman Struggle With Their Startup-and Each OtherQuibi is fighting for relevance in a crowded field of streaming media offerings with its formula of short movies and shows. Its success hinges, in part, on whether the duo at the top can overcome their sometimes clashing styles and leverage their more than 80 years of combined business experience.www.wsj.com

I don’t know why Quibi hasn’t drawn me in because I love the short content on YouTube. But the bottom line seems to be that Quibi is like Magic Leap: super successful at raising money, but the product is not really catching on and they’ve spent 2/3rds of the money they raised, more than $1 billion spent.

I don’t know why Quibi hasn’t drawn me in because I love the short content on YouTube. But the bottom line seems to be that Quibi is like Magic Leap: super successful at raising money, but the product is not really catching on and they’ve spent 2/3rds of the money they raised, more than $1 billion spent.

I wonder if Quibi would have had more success producing content for other platforms like YouTube where the audience already is?

The top down approach just seems to be reallly difficult. Better when things start in garages or dorm rooms with low expectations?

From Scott Galloway:

"In February, I predicted Quibi would be the unicorn that lost the most value in 2020, and would be stillborn. Media analyst @richlightshed wrote a thoughtful, and detailed, response on why I was wrong about Quibi and the streaming wars. Also, a senior exec at the firm called and asked me not to bad-mouth them before their launch, as it was bad form. A fair point, and I’ve been (for me) quiet on the issue.

Ok, no más. It (Quibi) is over. Jesus, that was easy.

Four Weddings & A Funeral | No Mercy / No Malice7-min read We witness border skirmishes between big tech firms on a regular basis. This year, one or...www.profgalloway.com

The Pandemic has caused a global dive in ad rates for every content distributer, not just Quibi:

“As TV networks start to run out of content to air and big advertiser draws like live sports are tabled, those companies are warning about severe advertising declines ahead. 

“In recent days, companies including ABC and ESPN parent Disney, Fox Corp., AMC Networks, NBCUniversal parent Comcast, ViacomCBS and Discovery reported earnings that showed how TV is trending as advertisers are pulling spend or postponing campaigns until later in the year.”

AMC has reported an expected ad revenue decline of 30% in the second quarter compared to last year. So Quibi having to renegotiate rates with advertisers is as much about the global trend as their not meeting expectations for sign ups.

A concern that wasn’t mentioned in Chris’s WSJ share, or yours from profgalloway.com, is that customers now working from home or on furlough are more likely to blitz through available content faster than if they had watched during breaks at work. Maybe that’s why they didn’t originally allow viewing from your TV at home: the demand rate for new content in the pipeline would be slower if your viewing time was only while at work.

Further reading

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Media companies expect a tough quarter for TV advertising, with no live sports and spending delayedIn recent days, companies including ABC and ESPN parent Disney, Fox Corp., AMC Networks, NBCUniversal parent Comcast, ViacomCBS and Discovery reported earnings that showed how TV is trending as advertisers are pulling spend or postponing campaigns until later in the year.www.cnbc.com

A concern that wasn’t mentioned in Chris’s WSJ share, or yours from profgalloway.com, is that customers now working from home or on furlough are more likely to blitz through available content faster than if they had watched during breaks at work. Maybe that’s why they didn’t originally allow viewing from your TV at home: the demand rate for new content in the pipeline would be slower if your viewing time was only while at work.

one question I have is are viewers watching Quibi content to begin with? I couldn't read the full article for WSJ but if they don't have viewers the ad rates aren't super relevant :)

I'd also argue that if a media company can't pass a stress test on a 30% drop in ad rates is not well suited for the future of media. 30% is really not that bad for a 3-6 month period, they will come back but if that's the difference between being solvent or going bankrupt without raising more money they're poorly run IMO.

The audience they're going after as I understand it are already on TikTok, SnapChat and YouTube and it's peers making the content for each other and at almost no expense to the platform operators. Better business model?

I couldn't read the full article for WSJ but if they don't have viewers the ad rates aren't super relevant :)

I hate to be the guy that says “you have to read the article to get the full picture,” however, you are missing out on a lot of the key details without reading the WSJ article.

Do you have the TechCrunch app by chance? Today’s Equity Monday column has a link to the WSJ article that bypasses their paywall. If not, here’s the Equity Monday column:

Equity Monday: Quibi, two Boston rounds and a shift to pessimism - TechCrunchHello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch's venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This is Equity Monday, our short-form week-starter in which we go over the weekend, look to the week ahead, talk about some neat funding rounds and dig into what is stuc...techcrunch.com

Sadly... the news looks bad for Quibi. I don't think they actually asked young consumers what they want before spending all the money.

My suggestion for saving the platform... raise $50MM and give 80% of the company to the 10 of the largest digital media creators on the internet they can sign up as co-founders and let them run it and pick a CEO. Maybe let SNAP put in half the funding and give them 10% in exchange for a license to use some of the content and rev share on the ads.

Yeah, real bad:

Quibi shuts down months after its launch: Of course it failedHighly hyped and shockingly expensive short form video streaming service Quibi shut down months after launching. But it was always doomed to fail.www.usatoday.com

I was never into it but very jealous of their funding. I thought at the time, instead of investing $1.75 billion into Quibi, why not $1.74 billion and $.01 billion into Cake. Then you might get something, but no.