Quibi will rise from the grave as its shows will be streamed on Roku Channel

Quibi was perhaps the biggest failure in the brief time period of the streaming media business model. It launched in mid-April 2020, having received over $1 billion in investment money. However, no one wanted to pay to watch its “quick bites” of scripted and non-scripted shows (10 minutes or less per episode). It shut down in December 2020.

Today, Roku announced that all that content on Quibi will soon get a second life on its Roku Channel.

Quibi on the Roku Channel platform

Roku’s press release did not state just how much money the streaming OS company paid to acquire Quibi’s content. However, The Wall Street Journal reports that the company spent less than $100 million for the rights.

The shows will be available to watch for free on the company’s Roku Channel, which is available for mobile on iOS and Android, on the web, and as an app on Roku’s streaming devices and smart TVs. There’s no word on when the shows will appear on the Roku Channel, other than sometime in 2021. There’s also no word on if the mobile apps will support Quibi’s feature of showing slightly different content on landscape and portrait modes.

Read more: Roku buyers guide

Quibi’s library of content included some Emmy award-winning shows in the short form categories. They included series like Most Dangerous Game, #Freerayshawn, a revival of Reno 911, and more. Variety reports that over a dozen shows that were ready to be shown on Quibi, but didn’t make it before the shutdown, will now debut on the Roku Channel.

Roku also announced today that its OS is the biggest selling smart TV operating system in North America for 2020. It had 38% of the smart TV market share in the US and 31% in Canada as of December 26, according to NPD. It also announced earlier this week that it had 51.2 million active accounts by the end of 2020, up from 36.9 million accounts in 2019.