With big-name backers, big-name filmmakers, high production values and convenient round-ups of news, sports and music, Quibi, a new mobile-centric platform for streaming content, is seeking to carve out a distinct niche in the battle for consumer attention.

Founder and chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg was at SXSW 2019 to outline a bold agenda for the platform which will launch in April next year. (For more, read WARC’s report: Will Quibi transform the world of mobile content?)

A core underlying principle for Quibi – short for “quick bites” – is that every installment of its content will be divided into intervals of less than ten minutes. Why? Because it marries up with the lifestyles of its target audience of 25-35 year-olds, who are generally time poor, and thus enjoy watching short-form material during brief gaps in their schedule.

“We will publish, every week, over a hundred pieces of original content,” Katzenberg told his audience. “So, we have to make 5,300 [or] 5,400 pieces of content in a 12-month period of time. It’s a pretty Herculean undertaking.”

Beyond quantity, Quibi wants to raise the bar for quality in the mobile space in various ways and has recruited acclaimed film directors such as Guillermo del Toro and Sam Raimi to provide weekly “lighthouse” content.

The fledgling service also aims to provide news updates that distill important happenings in current affairs down into a snackable form, while a similar approach will be applied to as many as 15 other categories of “daily essentials”, including sports highlights, music news and a recap of the best bits of the previous night’s late night chat shows.

Ultimately, Katzenberg’s ambition is “to make information as convenient as Spotify made music”.

With $1 billion in funding – and investors like Disney, NBCUniversal, Viacom, Sony Pictures Entertainment, WarnerMedia, and 21st Century Fox – Quibi clearly has piqued the interest of the media sector’s heavy hitters.

If all goes to plan, “Quibi will be to short-form [content] what Kleenex is to tissue, what Google is to search,” Katzenberg said.

Sourced from WARC