At the beginning of the year, Roku successfully negotiated with Quibi to acquire its content library, comprising 75 shows and 8,500 short episodes in a mobile-friendly 16:9 ratio. Quibi had shut down following a short and unsuccessful run, but it still had some interesting originals that were worth something.
After some licensing details and legal matters that had to be worked out in the meantime, Roku is now in a position to launch part of Quibi’s library, starting with 30 shows that will be offered for free on May 20, 2021.
The full list of the programs that are to be made available in a week is the following:
In addition to all that, Kevin Hart’s “Die Hart” from LOL Studios will also land on the Roku Channel, and so is the “Reno911!” documentary, and also “Punk’d” and “Chrissy’s Court.” Roku promises to debut more originals of the Channel later in the year, so the device users already have more stuff to look forward to.
Roku has also announced some special promotional offers to commemorate the launch of their first streaming player back in 2008. First, U.K.-based streamers can get £5 off Roku Express and £10 off Roku Streaming Stick+ through May 25, 2021. Second, the Roku Streambar will be discounted by £30 from May 19 to June 8, 2021. Thus, if you were thinking about joining the Roku platform, maybe this is a great time to do it.
As for the rest of Quibi's library, the other 45 shows that aren’t included in the upcoming roll-out are under Roku’s ownership now, and they will come out at a later stage. Some of those were in post-production when Quibi went defunct, and so they will make a debut on Roku. To ensure that these will be completed in the same style they were worked on initially, Roku has hired several former Quibi employees to work on the episodes and finish them in a way that does them justice.