{"id":320970,"date":"2025-11-07T14:23:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T19:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.reviews.com\/?p=261707"},"modified":"2025-11-07T14:23:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T19:23:15","slug":"ces-2020-quibi-makes-case-for-mobile-centric-streaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reviews.com\/entertainment\/streaming\/ces-2020-quibi-makes-case-for-mobile-centric-streaming\/","title":{"rendered":"CES 2020: Quibi Makes its Case for a Mobile-Centric Streaming Platform"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

New content-streaming company Quibi (pronounced like “kwibby”) is here at CES 2020 to showcase why it thinks there’s room for even more players in the streaming industry<\/a>. One key selling point: content created with mobile devices in mind. In hindsight, the market moved a different way: Quibi launched in April 2020 and shut down in October 2020 (The Verge<\/a>). Roku acquired Quibi\u2019s library in January 2021 and released more than 75 former Quibi shows as \u201cRoku Originals\u201d beginning in May 2021, delivering a record streaming weekend for The Roku Channel (The Hollywood Reporter<\/a>; Variety<\/a>; The Verge<\/a>). By 2025, streaming consistently accounts for roughly 40% of U.S. TV usage, with free, ad-supported and hybrid models at scale (Nielsen<\/a>). We followed along via livestream to see how Quibi made its case\u2014and how the industry ultimately absorbed parts of its vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Quibi-event\"
CEO Meg Whitman discusses Quibi at CES; the service later shut down in October 2020 (The Verge<\/a>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Longtime movie producer and Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg started things off by discussing major evolutions in entertainment, including the first silent films, adding sound and color, and the dawn to episodic television shows. Since then, the technical context for mobile streaming has accelerated: global 5G subscriptions and mobile data capacity have expanded, with video remaining the dominant driver of mobile traffic (Ericsson Mobility Report 2025<\/a>). On devices, hardware AV1 decode is standard on recent flagship Android chips, enabling higher quality at lower bitrates (Qualcomm<\/a>), and low-latency delivery via LL-HLS\/LL-DASH is widely adopted for live sports and interactivity (Apple<\/a>; Bitmovin<\/a>). HDR on mobile (HDR10\/Dolby Vision) is mainstream on capable phones (Apple Support<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Every evolution has been driven by the relationship between creativity and technology,” Katzenberg said. In practice, today\u2019s mobile video stack pairs efficient codecs (AV1) and adaptive delivery with device-aware experiences (vertical feeds, HDR) to raise quality and reliability at scale (Bitmovin<\/a>; Ericsson<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To that end, Quibi aims to tailor its original content to the ways consumers watch video on their phones \u2014 taking into account not just the lengths of time people spend watching, but also how they’re holding their devices. However, COVID\u201119 reshaped usage just as Quibi launched: stay\u2011at\u2011home periods boosted living\u2011room streaming and raised streaming\u2019s share of TV time, a shift that has remained elevated since (Nielsen 2024<\/a>). Mobile remained central to internet use, with video representing about 73% of global mobile data traffic and projected to rise further with 5G (Ericsson 2024<\/a>). The mixed reality was that smartphones dominated discovery and short sessions, while connected TVs captured a growing share of long\u2011form viewing (Nielsen 2025<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of two-hour movies or 30-minute TV shows, Quibi (short for “Quick Bites”) will offer content in short chunks. Short films and episodic content, for example, will be shown in episodes lasting around six to 10 minutes each. News and weather content will be similarly digestible. By contrast, the short\u2011form norms that came to dominate mobile are vertically oriented clips typically under 60\u201390 seconds, delivered in algorithmic feeds at massive scale: YouTube Shorts reports 2B+ logged\u2011in monthly users (YouTube<\/a>), TikTok has 170M monthly users in the U.S. (TikTok<\/a>), and data.ai finds short\u2011form video apps among the top drivers of time spent and consumer spend growth (data.ai<\/a>). This gap\u20146\u201310 minute, paywalled episodes vs. sub\u201160\u2011second, free vertical clips\u2014proved consequential for adoption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katzenberg cited Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code<\/em>, with its extremely short chapters, as an inspiration for how Quibi is portioning out its content. In practice, serialized micro\u2011episodes have flourished inside free short\u2011form ecosystems that funnel viewers to longer videos and live streams, including for news: usage of TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts for news among 18\u201324s continues to rise (Reuters Institute 2025<\/a>; Ofcom<\/a>). Among U.S. teens, 95% use YouTube and 67% use TikTok, with notable shares reporting \u201calmost constant\u201d use\u2014evidence of short\u2011form\u2019s habitual pull (Pew Research<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it’s not just time lengths where Quibi hopes to bring something new to the market. CEO Meg Whitman, who’s also led HP and eBay over the years, discussed how the company is leveraging the sensors and technology built into modern phones and letting content creators take advantage. Since then, interaction has matured in two directions: sensor\u2011rich spatial platforms (standardized gaze\/hand inputs on visionOS; room\u2011aware MR via Meta\u2019s Presence Platform) and scalable live\u2011video features like multiview and real\u2011time overlays (Apple HIG<\/a>; Meta Presence Platform<\/a>; YouTube TV multiview<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What would it be like to watch a thriller that knows what time it is, or a scary story that knows if the lights are out?” Whitman posited. While bespoke sensor\u2011dependent storytelling remained niche, orientation\u2011aware and vertical\u2011first consumption became mainstream in adjacent contexts: Amazon added a vertical, phone\u2011optimized stream for Thursday Night Football on Prime Video (The Verge<\/a>), and Twitch introduced a vertical Discovery Feed to help mobile users find live channels via short clips (Twitch<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quibi also discussed its Turnstile feature, where content is presented in full-screen whether you’re holding the phone in landscape or portrait mode. Doing that properly, the company said, requires creating video with both viewing angles in mind, so all content on the platform is required to have two separate video edits: one for portrait and one for landscape. Turnstile achieved instant rotation by streaming two synchronized encodes and switching on the fly\u2014ingenious, but it doubled storage\/delivery footprints and added workflow complexity (The Verge<\/a>). In 2025, most platforms instead master natively in vertical for shorts, use selective multi\u2011aspect outputs only when ROI justifies it, and rely on AI auto\u2011reframing to derive 9:16\/1:1 cuts from a single timeline (Adobe Auto Reframe<\/a>). Parallel advances\u2014AV1 adoption, per\u2011title encoding, and standardized QoE\u2014further reduce bits without forcing dual edits (Bitmovin<\/a>; Qualcomm<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Quibi’s Turnstile delivered two synchronized streams for instant portrait\/landscape switching; today, most services favor native vertical masters or AI-driven reframes for mobile delivery (explainer<\/a>; tooling<\/a>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The feature can also be used to provide different experiences depending on how you hold your phone. In one example from a thriller called Nest<\/em>, a woman is seen at home dealing with an intruder. If you watch in landscape mode, the story plays out via traditional widescreen camera angles. But if you flip to portrait mode, say while the character is calling for help, you’ll see a view of her phone, emulating her struggling to make a video phone call to her father. The broader industry adopted a different playbook: explicit alternate feeds (e.g., Prime Video\u2019s vertical NFL stream) and user\u2011controlled multiview and overlays rather than automatic rotation\u2011triggered edits (Prime Video<\/a>; YouTube TV<\/a>). Discovery itself shifted to vertical feeds that surface short clips before handing off to long\u2011form viewing (Twitch<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all, Quibi said it will deliver 175 new original shows from well-known Hollywood talent. On a daily basis, Whitman said we can expect movies to deliver a new chapter each day. Episodic content, e.g., TV shows, will have five episodes per day. And Daily Essentials, such as news and weather, will include 25 clips daily. In total, Whitman said that totals around 3 hours of new daily content. What ultimately reached scale was the catalog\u2019s second life: Roku acquired Quibi\u2019s library in early 2021 and launched more than 75 series as Roku Originals in May 2021; Roku reported that debut set a new streaming record for The Roku Channel, which continues to be a growth vector in Roku\u2019s platform business (THR<\/a>; Variety<\/a>; The Verge<\/a>; Roku Investor Update<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The platform launches on April 6 for $4.99 with ads and $7.99 without. So we’ll have to wait a bit to see if Quibi’s mobile-focused approach will take off with consumers, but the behind-the-scenes tech is fascinating and we’re looking forward to seeing how content creators leverage these new tools.
In reality, Quibi shut down in October 2020 (The Verge<\/a>). Roku purchased the library in January 2021 and re\u2011released the shows as Roku Originals starting in May 2021 (THR<\/a>; Variety<\/a>). By 2025, the competitive field favors scale and hybrid monetization: streaming holds ~40% share of U.S. TV usage (Nielsen<\/a>), and leading services emphasize ad tiers and bundles\u2014Netflix reported 40M monthly active users on its ad plan, with ads accounting for over 40% of new sign\u2011ups in ad markets (Netflix<\/a>). Quibi\u2019s orientation\u2011aware instincts foreshadowed today\u2019s vertical feeds and alternate mobile streams, but the market ultimately validated free, ad\u2011supported discovery and cross\u2011device viewing over a paywalled, phone\u2011only model.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New content-streaming company Quibi (pronounced like “kwibby”) is here at CES 2020 to showcase why it thinks there’s room for even more players in the streaming industry. One key selling point: content created with mobile devices in mind. 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