Quibi has arrived, with a free trial period and everything. But what is worth watching, right out of the gate? (And what is Quibi again…?)
Answer the second question first, Quibi is a streaming service that offers episodes as “quick bites” (ergo its name) of 10 minutes or less, displaying “full-screen” no matter how you hold your phone. Its content falls into any of three buckets:
* Movies in Chapters aka “big stories told in chapters that are seven to 10 minutes in length.”
* Unscripted Series and Docs about food, fashion, travel, animals, cars, builds, music, sports, comedy, talk, variety and more.
* Daily Essentials that deliver the day’s news and information in five- to six-minute bites.
At launch, the first three (3) episodes of Quibi’s Movie in Chapters and Unscripted Series and Docs will be available; new episodes will then roll out daily on weekdays. All told, Quibi is promising to release 175 original shows and “8,500 quick bites of content” in its first year alone. (Our latest TVLine-Up offers a decent list of the dozens of programs available at launch.)
Quibi is currently offering a 90-day free trial, if you sign up before the end of April. Otherwise, the service will run you $4.99 a month with ads, or $7.99 without. (Any ads will be non-skippable and run six, 10 or 15 seconds long before each episode — or, about 2-1/2 minutes of ads for every hour of programming consumed.)
What is worth at least a look at launch? Scroll through the attached gallery (click here for direct access) to get a taste for the “quick bites” that stood out for us.