Month: September 2020

Is Quibi a good idea to adopt for news content distribution?

Published on by Shifa NaseerLeave a comment

Quibi is an American subscription-based Over-The-Top (OTT) mobile streaming platform which is the brainchild of former Disney executive and DreamWorks Animation co-founder, Jeffrey Katzenberg. The platform aims to deliver short-form video on a mobile-only platform.

The OTT platform targets smartphone users, 25-to-35-year-old millennials, who are always on the go; those who are looking for a short videos called ‘quick bites’ to keep them occupied, for instance, on their way to work or during a short break. The platform hosts new episodes or ‘chapters’ every day, each with a length of 10 minutes or less. 

Katzenberg envisioned the idea of a disruptive innovation which delivers short-form scripted and unscripted content directly to a user’s smartphone.

The app is available to download on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. Quibi currently offers two subscription prices: $4.99 with ads or $7.99 without ads. 

The OTT platforms have revolutionised the pattern of content consumption in the market, proving to be a disruptive innovation model which has already crossed over to the late majority phase. 

The statement can be supported with the number of subscribers that are now opting for OTT platforms as compared to linear TV. The ensuing lockdown due to the pandemic also contributed to the growth of SVOD (subscription video on demand).

According to an article by New York Times, Netflix had 182.8 million subscribers as of April this year; Disney had 54.5 million Disney+ subscribers as of May 4; Amazon Prime Video has around 56 million subscribers in the US alone. Apple TV Plus and HBO Max have also launched this year but are struggling to make a mark in the streaming sector. 

Not only was Quibi late in joining the OTT bandwagon, it also launched in the middle of a pandemic. Mobile analytics firm Sensor Tower estimates only 4.5 million have downloaded Quibi in total since its launch. The platform is available in the US, Canada,  the UK, Ireland, Australia, and Germany, among others. In Canada, communications company Bell Media is Quibi’s marketing partner and the first Canadian provider of daily content for the new platform. 

While Quibi is mostly focussed on delivering entertainment content, the platform also hosts news programmes. There is potential to build small news snippets in the video form for users with the Turnstyle technology which aims to offer a better user experience by switching to landscape or portrait viewing. Content being made specifically for Quibi has been framed in a way so that it suits either aspect ratio.

However, Quibi has had a bad start owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Katzenberg. The platform was launched earlier this year on April 6 with 50 shows at launch and 125 more slated to roll out this year.

Not only did the platform have to compete with the already saturated OTT market, the world was also adjusting to the lockdown. The platform was being launched for on-the-go users but with the pandemic restricting everyone to their homes,  the biggest selling point of the platform was rendered moot.

Quibi’s business model aims to satiate an endless appetite for entertainment. However, the concept is not new. The mobile-viewing feature is already available on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube which also offer news in short-form videos for free. Further, the streaming app does not offer the option to cast content on a big screen.

Despite the fact that Quibi raised around $1.8 billion, according to the data provided by Crunchbase, and is backed by major players in the market including NBCUniversal, WarnerMedia, Lionsgate, and ITV, the platform has struggled to rope in paid subscribers.

Based on Technology Adoption Life Cycle model, Quibi seems to have lost momentum after reaching early adopters. The chasm between the early adopters and early majority is too great to cross with the current situation.  

Quibi Co-founder Katzenberg outrightly blamed the pandemic for the app’s inability to capture the audience attention despite hosting a star-studded content line-up which includes Jennifer Lopez, Sam Raimi, and the Russo brothers. 

Tracing Quibi’s growth since its launch using the Technology Adoption Life Cycle bell curve, it seems that the  platform was taken in by the illusion of growth and failed to factor in the chasm between the early adopters and the early majority.

In the initial days of launch in April, the platform saw nearly a million users who signed up for the 90-day free trial, Sensor Tower estimates. But the growth was short-lived with only 72,000 users who stuck around after the trial ended. However, Quibi is yet to announce an official subscriber count. 

There is still hope for Quibi as the world is slowly getting back on its feet and the platform’s target audience will be mobile again.

But the platform still faces a number of challenges. The platform has fallen flat on the expectations of the users who have a lot more options to choose from. 

The time to move from early adopters to early majority users is hard to predict because of the uncertainty due to the pandemic. The surge in users could also be attributed to the 90-day free trial after which the retention was only 8%.

It could be that the trial is already becoming cold and the chasm is widening as other platforms compete for eyeballs, even though Quibi keeps insisting it is not in competition with other OTT platform with long-form content.

In the reading, ‘Crossing The Chasm’, Tarzan’s example comes to mind where momentum plays a very important role to move from vine to vine. It seems as if Quibi has missed that momentum and is frantically jerking around trying to find a way to move forward without leverage. 

To conclude, the organisation can choose to be late majority in this case and hope to wait out the pandemic before adopting Quibi as one of the modes of content distribution. 

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Published on by Shifa NaseerLeave a comment

It seems like Covid-19 has set forth a chain reaction – a series of unfortunate events. Lives are lost, the economy is in turmoil and life as we know it has changed. Like always, we must rise to the challenge and adapt with the changing landscape.

The media sector, while innovating to keep up the reporting during the pandemic, has not been spared either, especially the local media outlets. The pandemic spelled the doom for already weakening local media agencies.

With the digital age, the percentage of print readers was already on a decline and the pandemic proved to be an accelerant. Consumers are spending more time on screens than ever before.

Local media outlets mostly depend on subscriptions and advertising revenue in order to keep the doors open. After the world shut down, it became very difficult to keep the boat afloat due to the loss incurred over the months. 

Media sector was also affected with big conglomerates opting for mass layoffs and salary cuts in order to minimise the damage. 

The local media outlets with limited revenue stream were the first ones to experience the financial effects of lockdown. People who were laid off were the first ones to cut the cord of subscription to save money. Advertising sector also took a hit which brought the ad revenue to a halt as well. 

A report by Poynter explains the ravages of Covid-19 on local media outlets across Ameria.

The coronavirus has closed more than 50 local newsrooms across America.

What stands out in the report is that about 1,800 newspapers closed in the US since 2004, according to Penny Abernathy’s research on news deserts. Out of those, 1,700 were weeklies.

It seems like Covid-19 is here to stay for a while. It may take months before a vaccine can reach to the local level pharmacy. It will take years to recuperate from the economical damage caused by the pandemic and even longer to get a track of everything else.

Once a necessity at the breakfast table, newspapers are fast being replaced by news apps and websites. Those who still subscribe to them usually continue out of habit. How long before even they migrate to digital?

The new generation will not remember finding a newspaper on the welcome mat in the morning or sifting through the news pages to reach the crossword or sudoku. It is interesting that I myself rely solely on digital mediums including social media which is one of the sources for fast news.

I hope that we see the return of the newspapers and magazines, once a thriving industry but now turning into a trend of the past.

An Introduction

Published on by Shifa Naseer11 Comments

Following the need to stay up-to-date as well as keeping others informed, I have embarked on a journey to learn the tricks of the trade.

As a journalist, I hope to achieve great things, starting with the most fundamental ones. If I get those right, I am sure I will do a jolly good job of it.

For that purpose, I am creating this site as part of my assignment. I hope I am able to develop it into something that people would want to read.

And even after it is graded and everything, I pledge to continue posting stories here.

Given it is the year which brought us a couple of disasters, it is difficult to be optimistic about things. But hey, we can still try!

Here’s to a year of possibilities. Cheers!