Quibi is coming back from the dead next week… kind of.
On May 20, Roku will make a big appearance the first batch of Roku Originals — an collection of 30 shows initially delivered for Quibi, the short-lived mobile entertainment startup led by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman. Roku paid considerably under $100 million for the resources of the defunct company, including rights to in excess of 75 shows generally.
The shows span genres and formats, comprising scripted series, documentaries, alternative and reality programming. Among the main “Roku Originals” coming one week from now are Kevin Hart’s action series “Die Hart,” Emmy-winning drama “#FreeRayshawn” starring Laurence Fishburne and Jasmine Cephas Jones, the revival of Comedy Central’s “Reno 911!” and “Dummy,” starring Anna Kendrick as a woman who befriends her boyfriend’s sex doll.
The lineup also includes “Chrissy’s Court,” a “Judge Judy”-style show starring Chrissy Teigen; a reboot of MTV’s “Punk’d” hosted by Chance the Rapper; Jennifer Lopez money-giveaway reality show “Thanks a Million”; and travel series “Cup of Joe” with Joe Jonas. On the scripted front, there’s “Most Dangerous Game,” a dystopian thriller starring Liam Hemsworth and Christoph Waltz; “Flipped,” a dark comedy with Will Forte and Kaitlin Olson; and a remake of “The Fugitive” starring Kiefer Sutherland.
The entirety of the Roku Originals will be accessible free on the Roku stage for viewers in the U.S., the U.K. furthermore, Canada. Roku is keeping Quibi’s unique scene lengths — around 10 minutes every, they should be intended for versatile review. The organization will serve promotions between Quibi scenes (not inside them), promising advertisement breaks of close to 60 seconds.
In the first quarter of 2021, The Roku Channel arrived at U.S. families with an expected 70 million individuals. The Roku Channel’s crowd reach and streaming hours dramatically increased year-over-year in the quarter — developing twice as quick as the by and large Roku platform.
“That makes this an opportune time to launch Roku Originals, to capture this momentum,” said Sweta Patel, VP of engagement growth marketing.
Here’s the full list of Quibi programs that will be available May 20:
“#FreeRayshawn”; “About Face”; “Bad Ideas with Adam Devine”; “Barkitechture”; “Big Rad Wolf”; “Blackballed”; “Centerpiece”; “Chrissy’s Court”; “Cup of Joe”; “Die Hart”; “Dishmantled”; “Dummy”; “Fight Like a Girl”; “Flipped”; “The Fugitive”; “Gayme Show”; “Iron Sharpens Iron”; “Last Looks”; “Let’s Roll with Tony Greenhand”; “Most Dangerous Game”; “Murder House Flip”; “Murder Unboxed”; “Nightgowns”; “Prodigy”; “Punk’d”; “Reno 911!”; “Royalties”; “Shape of Pasta”; “Thanks a Million”; and “You Ain’t Got These.”
Roku is launching the Roku Originals area on May 20, which the organization celebrates as “Streaming Day” (honoring the day in 2008 when it presented its first streaming player) and will again feature different retail discounts and promotions on products. On Roku gadgets, there will be another bar on the left-hand menu that connections straightforwardly to Roku Originals. The organization likewise will advance the first substance in on-screen promotions and plans to do landing page takeovers for specific titles.
Roku additionally is partnering with Laugh Out Loud, Kevin Hart’s multiplatform comedy brand, to dispatch the direct LOL! Organization to The Roku Channel one week from now. “LOL’s partnership with Roku is the culmination of a lot of hard work by two great teams, and I’m excited that both ‘Die Hart’ and LOL! Network will be available on The Roku Channel,” Hart said in a proclamation.
Roku Originals will join The Roku Channel’s lineup of in excess of 40,000 free movies and TV episodes, just as 190 plus free live linear channels and access to subscription VOD administrations. Notwithstanding Roku gadgets, The Roku Channel is accessible on the web, iOS and Android gadgets, Amazon Fire TV and select Samsung TVs.
Roku’s Patel said in the initial selection of 30 Quibi shows, the organization needed to make it as comprehensive as could really be expected. “We wanted to make sure we had something for everyone, with depth, breadth and diversity,” she said.
Roku actually has nearly 45 other Quibi shows in its back pocket (some of which are in postproduction and were never delivered by Quibi). Yet, shouldn’t something be said about after that? “We are continually proceeding to source content,” Patel said. “We are always continuing to source content,” Patel said. “We’re making sure it’s cost-effective content — whether we produce it in-house or use an outside production partner.” as well as obtaining Quibi’s content assets, Roku has recruited a few previous Quibi workers as it works out the original content team.
Patel added that Roku isn’t married to Quibi’s short-form episode format. “Whatever works for us is whatever works for AVOD,” she said.
In March, Roku paid $98 million to secure the producer of “This Old House” in a deal that included a library of in excess of 1,500 episodes. In any case, Roku will keep on distribute that content broadly, instead of making it accessible solely on The Roku Channel.