Quibi's Shows Will Live On, As Roku Acquires Streaming Rights For Under $100 Million

Confirming rumors, Roku has announced that it acquired the global distribution rights to Quibi's programming after the short-form streaming platform shut down late last year.

According to Deadline, "most" of Quibi's shows will move over to Roku, but "some daily news shows" are not making the jump. The official announcement said there will be 75+ shows available from Quibi on Roku. The acquisition price was not named in the report, but WSJ reporter Ben Mullin said it was less than $100 million.

Roku executive Rob Holmes explained to Deadline that existing agreements with the creators of the shows will remain in place. "We're excited about that. It's great, high-quality, top talent, and high-quality content," Holmes said.

On Roku, the shows will be free to watch with ads. All of the content will live on the Roku Channel from within the service.

The actual viewing experience will be different, however. On Quibi, the shows lasted only about 10 minutes, but it appears Roku plans to splice them together for longer-form viewing.

"I think their premise was, you have 10 minutes, you would watch it. Our view is, this is TV, someone's going to spend half an hour or an hour or two hours watching it because it’s just that compelling," Holmes said.

The acquisition of Quibi's content comes at a high point for Roku, which recently exceeded a massive user milestone as people flock to streaming during the pandemic.

Quibi attracted some very big names for TV shows and movies. Liam Hemsworth and Christoph Waltz star in the movie Most Dangerous Game, while Game of Thrones actress Sophie Turner appears in the Quibi movie Survive. Chrissy Teigen hosts Chrissy's Court, while Rachel Brosnahan stars in the show Golden Arm, which is about a woman with a golden arm.