Roku has purchased the content previously owned by failed streaming video startup Quibi for less than $100 million and will make it available to customers for free.
“We’re expanding The Roku Channel‘s library with shows from some of today’s biggest entertainers,” Roku’s Rob Holmes announced. “How, you ask? By bringing Quibi’s ground-breaking entertainment directly to The Roku Channel in 2021. The Roku Channel will soon be home to Emmy-nominated and popular shows, such as #FreeRayshawn, Chrissy’s Court, Die Hart, Dummy, Flipped, Most Dangerous Game, Punk’d, Reno 911!, Survive, and more.”
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There aren’t many more details: All we know for sure is that all of the content from Quibi, which includes “quick bites and big stories,” will be available via the Roku Channel for free starting sometime in 2021. This includes “75 shows and hundreds of hours of entertainment.”
Quibi, of course, is most famous for its quick crash and burn after raising $1.75 billion from investors and launching in April 2020. It shut down officially in December, but it was dead long before that. The service threw away—sorry, “spent”—over $1 billion commissioning original content for its first year in business.