Quibi, the much hyped short-form content streaming service, launched last week and it gained 1.7 million downloads in a single week. Now, Quibi says that it is working on TV Casting support, so that users will be able to watch content on their TV.
Originally, Quibi was supposed to be a mobile-only streaming service, with apps for iOS and Android. Which is exactly what it is. But many are complaining that they can’t watch content on their TVs, due to there being no TV support. But that’s going to change.
Quibi CEO, Meg Whitman, says that the company may have launched TV Casting support earlier, if it had known about the pandemic, that is forcing everyone to stay home right now. As more people are watching TV than content on their smartphones.
TV support is coming, but the question is when?
Whitman did note that Quibi will be adding TV support, likely starting with Casting, as that should be the easiest to implement. But there’s no time-frame as to when that might be rolled out.
Cast is going to be the easiest and will be available for most consumers. As the majority of consumers that use streaming services have an Apple TV, Chromecast, Fire TV, Android TV or Roku box. All of which support Cast, except for the Apple TV which uses its own AirPlay technology to do essentially the same thing. So that would make it available for a lot more people on their TVs.
If Quibi was smart, it would roll out this new feature before the 90 day trial is up. That way people can Cast to their TVs before they have to start paying for Quibi. Remember Quibi is going to be $4.99 per month with ads, and $9.99 per month without.
1.7 million downloads in a week is impressive, but far behind the competition
Of course, a big reason for Quibi gaining so many downloads in the first week, is the fact that everyone is at home right now. But it is still behind competitors like Disney+, who had 3.2 million downloads in the first day and 10 million subscribers in week one.
However, Disney+ isn’t exactly an apples to apples comparison. Disney has a lot more content to put into Disney+, and it was also being hyped up as much as a year ahead of the launch. With it being available to purchase (at a discount) months ahead of the launch. So it had a pretty big head start.
Quibi is also one of the few companies that won’t be hurting during this pandemic. And that is because it sold out all of its ad slots for the first year. So unless, this pandemic continues into 2021, then Quibi won’t be hurting for money.