Roku Acquires Rights to Quibi Content for Less Than $100 Million - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Roku Acquires Rights to Quibi Content for Less Than $100 Million

Roku has reached an agreement to acquire the rights to content from the now-defunct video streaming service Quibi (via The Wall Street Journal).

quibi

Roku reportedly paid less than $100 million to acquire the rights to Quibi's library of original content until 2022.

Quibi was a short-form video subscription service launched in April of last year. Executives believed that the service would be able to garner approximately 7.4 million subscribers during its first year, but it massively fell short with an estimated 400,000 to 500,000 subscribers. After courting a number of tech companies, including Apple, to see if it could be sold off, the service announced that it was shutting down in October 2020.

Roku is the biggest streaming media player in the United States, with a library of more than 40,000 movies and TV shows, and the acquisition of Quibi's content will offer a boost of more than 75 shows and documentaries.

Quibi's content will also be among the minority of exclusives on the platform, as the majority of Roku's programming is also viewable elsewhere. The acquisition is expected to give Roku more leverage in negotiations with advertisers, who may pay more to show their ads alongside shows that viewers are unable to see elsewhere.

Tags: Quibi, Roku

Popular Stories

iCloud iPhone 17 Pro

iPhone Users Who Pay for iCloud Storage Get Two New Perks on iOS 27

Thursday July 2, 2026 6:10 am PDT by
If you pay for certain iCloud+ storage plans beyond the 5GB that Apple offers for free, you will receive two more perks on iOS 27 at no additional cost. A summary of the two new iCloud+ perks on iOS 27:Increased daily usage limits for some new Apple Intelligence features, including image generation in the revamped Image Playground app. HomeKit Secure Video cameras receive generated video...
iPhone 4 on Black Feature

Apple Facing One of Its Worst Leaks Since the iPhone 4

Thursday July 2, 2026 9:53 am PDT by
Apple supplier Tata Electronics recently suffered a cyberattack that resulted in thousands of confidential files being published on the dark web, and this reportedly included some photos and documents related to the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro. We have elected not to share any of the leaked photos in this story due to the illegal nature in which they were obtained, but they can easily be found...
American Express Gold Apple Pay Feature

American Express Announces New Apple Pay Feature

Tuesday June 30, 2026 10:27 am PDT by
American Express today announced that you can now redeem Membership Rewards points when checking out with Apple Pay on the web and in apps on the iPhone and iPad. When checking out with Apple Pay on iOS 18 or iPadOS 18 or later, tap on your eligible American Express card (Platinum, Gold, Green, and others) and select the Membership Rewards points option. You can use points to cover all or...

Top Rated Comments

72 months ago
They over paid lol
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
72 months ago
Flushing money down the drain.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
72 months ago
What an incredible waste of money. No one watched the stuff before, no one will watch the same old stuff now
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
scottct1 Avatar
72 months ago
I didn't watch their content when I had a free account from T Mobile, why do they think I am going to watch now?
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sw1tcher Avatar
72 months ago

Mindshare is different than market share, though. If I hear about a new hit streaming show, it’s on Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, Peacock, or AppleTV+. I’ve never once heard someone talk about some new show they’re getting into where they say, “Oh, it’s on The Roku Channel”. (Actually, this is the first I’m hearing of The Roku Channel.) While there do seem to be viewers for Roku’s service, they don’t seem to have the same name recognition for original content as the major streaming services.
The reason you've never heard anyone talk about a new show on the Roku Channel and "they don’t seem to have the same name recognition for original content as the major streaming services" is because Roku never had their own original content until now.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sw1tcher Avatar
72 months ago

I kind of fell that Roku paid too much for these shows. Few wanted them when they were on Quibi - why would people want them now that they're elsewhere?

What an incredible waste of money. No one watched the stuff before, no one will watch the same old stuff now

Sounds like alot of money for content that nobody was really interested in.
You have to ask why Quibi failed though.

Was it the content or was it:

- The timing of the launch (April 2020)? That was around the height of the 1st wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

- The name of the service? What's a Quibi?

- The business model? You pay $5 per month to watch a few short videos and you still get served ads? Yes, their business model is similar to Hulu's ad supported version of which 70 percent of their subscribers are on ('https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/hulu-ad-supported-subscribers-70-percent-1203227954/'), but Hulu's got a lot more content (new, old, and originals) and they had 1st mover advantage. And if you took advantage of the Hulu Black Friday promos in 2018 ($$0.99/mo for 1 year), 2019 ($1.99/mo for 1 year), and 2020 ($1.99/mo for 1 year), Quibi is a poor value in comparison.

- Quibi had to acquire new subscribers from scratch and you had to watch the shorts on a small screen vs your big screen TV at home.

I don't believe the problem was the content; Quibi has several good shows ('https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/best-quibi-shows/').

Quibi managed to acquire "an estimated 400,000 to 500,000 subscribers."

Meanwhile, as of Q3 2020, Roku had 46 million active accounts ('https://ir.roku.com/static-files/2148e434-58e4-48e1-bd1c-926862e3c21b') and their Roku Channel reached 54 million U.S. households.

Roku's going to have a lot more people watching this content now. For Roku, this is an investment in their platform which, for their most recent quarter, grew revenue 78 percent year-over-year.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)