Quibi

Digital video company Eko hit back against Quibi on Tuesday, accusing the upcoming mobile-only streaming app of infringing on its patented technology and misappropriating trade secrets. The Israeli company is essentially looking to bar Quibi, set to debut next month, from using video technology that underpins how viewers watch its shows.

Quibi has become the latest company to call off a planned gathering amid growing coronavirus fears, with a launch event scheduled for next month canceled “out of an abundance of caution.” A spokesperson said Monday: “While we look forward to launching the Quibi app on April 6, we have decided to cancel our pre-launch event party out of an abundance of caution as we continue to monitor COVID-19. Supporting the health and well-being of everyone involved is our top priority.”

Short-form streaming-video service Quibi, which is preparing to launch next month, faces claims that one of its core tech features infringes on another company’s intellectual property, according to documents describing the dispute.

Shortform streamer Quibi has set its initial lineup of shows for its April 6 launch — and it’s a long list. The mobile-centric platform will debut with 50 shows, tilted heavily toward unscripted content and what it calls “Daily Essentials” — short news and sports programs, talk shows and advice shows. It has four scripted shows — or “Movies in Chapters,” as each will have a total run time roughly equivalent to a feature film, with episodes running under 10 minutes apiece.

Short-form video streamer Quibi said it has closed a second round of financing worth $750 million, bringing its total investment to $1.75 billion about a month before the service’s planned launch. The company said the $750 million includes about $400 million secured at the end of 2019. Quibi didn’t identify the recent investors or disclose how the investment values the company.

Quibi CEO Meg Whitman, who is 67 days away from the launch of the company’s ambitious new streaming service, claimed that the company doesn’t really see the likes of Netflix, Hulu or Disney Plus as rivals.

Meg Whitman and Jeffrey Katzenberg took the stage at CES for a keynote about the mobile-first video product they’ve been building.

Next week’s CES in Las Vegas will once again take over the Strip with a sprawling, frenetic glimpse into tomorrow’s consumer technology. This time, NextGen TV will make its show floor debut, and hopes are high consumers will notice.

Diane Nelson, the former president of DC Entertainment who joined Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Quibi as head of content operations less than a year ago, is leaving the mobile subscription video startup. Nelson is the latest high-profile Quibi exec to leave the company recently — with her departure coming less than six months before the company is scheduled to launch its ambitious SVOD service in April 2020.

Madeleine Haeringer, a longtime producer at MSNBC and NBC News, is returning to the network to run the news division’s partnership with Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Quibi.

Quibi said Tuesday it has sold out of its $150 million first-year advertising inventory. Set for an April 2020 launch, the mobile-only streaming service has also added Discover, General Mills, Taco Bell and T-Mobile as new brand partners.

Quibi is tapping a second NBCUniversal news brand to produce daily news programming for its mobile-first live content platform, set to launch April 2020. Hispanic media juggernaut Telemundo announced today that its news division is partnering with Quibi on two Hispanic news shows for the platform’s curated news and entertainment programming vertical, Daily Essentials.

CBS News will create 60 In 6, a six-minute program produced in the style of its venerable magazine show 60 Minutes, for the mobile audience of Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Quibi.

The sports network, part of The Walt Disney Co., has agreed to join the likes of NBC News in providing content for the soon-to-launch short-form video platform from Jeffrey Katzenberg, a onetime chairman of Walt Disney Studios and a founder of DreamWorks. ESPN’s contribution, a daily sports highlights show, is expected to air on Quibi at the platform’s scheduled launch in April 2020.

“We’re going up on a high wire and there’s no safety net underneath it,” says Jeffrey Katzenberg, the founder of the upcoming short-form video streamer that is paying top dollar and making star-friendly deals to counter questions about whether consumers will respond.

Quibi is to launch two daily news shows aimed at millennials after striking a deal with NBC News. The broadcaster’s news operations becomes the first producer to partner with Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman’s short-form digital service for its curated daily news strand Daily Essentials.

Former DC Entertainment president Diane Nelson is joining Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman’s upstart Quibi. Sources say Nelson — who in June exited Warner Bros., where she also held the title of president of consumer products — will be head of operations at the shortform video venture that was launched earlier this year with $1 billion in investment from all the major film studios and Alibaba.

Quibi, the upcoming video service founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg and former HP CEO Meg Whitman, is getting two shows from Stephen Curry’s Unanimous Media as well as director Catherine Hardwicke. Katzenberg and Whitman announced the new projects at Variety’s Innovate summit in Los Angeles on Wednesday, where the duo also shared some additional details on the technology and roadmap of the service.