HBO Max, Quibi, Peacock Enter Center Stage

ALLY MARECEK—THE SANTA CLARA

New streaming platforms debut during the pandemic

Months before the coronavirus brought society to a locked-down low, the entertainment industry was experiencing a major high.

Independent films like “Parasite” and “Uncut Gems” were making millions of dollars at the box office. New services like Apple TV+ and Disney+ entered the growing Hollywood streaming wars. An abundance of original content was keeping consumers happy. 

Now, television and film productions have been halted and theaters are temporarily closed, and there are spreading rumors that major chains like AMC may go bankrupt before they can even open again. 

Throughout all of this though, new streaming services are continuing to launch. The current pandemic may lead these new providers to success or downright failure, but it’s too close to call—for now.

Enter Quibi, the most intriguing streaming service to be released in recent months. 

 Founded by Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg, the streamer aims at providing viewers “quick bites” of content (hence their name Quibi), which translates to television series or “movies in chapters” that are all below a 10-minute runtime and can only be watched on your phone. 

These snippets of content allow viewers to access entertainment even during small breaks in the day—whether that be in the line at a coffee shop, while stuck in traffic, or in between meetings at work.

But the world that Quibi planned on thriving in has now been upended by the coronavirus. With everyone stuck at home, Quibi’s original purpose of entertaining people on-the-go doesn’t have as strong of an appeal to audiences. Despite this, Quibi has so far had a successful debut with people at home still in search for something to entertain themselves with. 

Quibi made it’s U.S. debut on April 7. After the first week, the streamer already had 1.7 million app downloads as part of a 90-day free trial available to all consumers. 

Many famous Hollywood stars have hopped onto Quibi, including Chris Hemsworth, Anna Kendrick, Reese Witherspoon, Lebron James and Chrissy Teigen.

Although many viewers are getting annoyed by only being able to view Quibi’s shows on their phones, this was the intended strategy for the app in order to serve on-the-go streaming, but people stuck at home want to watch it on bigger screens.

Quibi recently released a statement saying they’re working on developing technology so viewers can remotely display the app onto television screens, but this may not come out for another month. If it comes out too late, viewers may leave the platform for other content elsewhere. 

Once the 90-day free trial period is up, the real question will be if consumers will be willing to pay $7.99 per month (or $4.99 with ads) for a streaming service that’s only getting “meh” reviews. 

This same worry over garnering a large audience comes with the launch of Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming platform, which was relying on a slew of new, original content to attract subscribers. With film and television productions halted, much of this original content (including a reboot of “Saved By The Bell”) hasn’t finished production yet and won’t get released until post-pandemic. 

Regardless, the streaming service is still planning on launching July 15 and will be relying on existing content to attract viewers, including shows like “Parks and Recreation,” “Law and Order: SVU” and hundreds of critically-acclaimed movies including “Schindler’s List,” “E.T.” and “Lost in Translation.” 

Peacock will also become the new owner of “The Office,” one of Netflix’s most prized possessions. The streaming giant will lose sole ownership of the comedy hit at the start of 2021. 

For Peacock, the monthly subscription fee is just a hair under five dollars with ads, which is comparable to Apple TV+ and is cheaper than most other streaming services on the market.

HBO Max is the exact opposite, with a $14.99 monthly payment that will make it one of the most expensive streamers to date. 

While all of HBO’s original content like Game of Thrones will be available, so will many other notable shows including “Gossip Girl,” “Rick and Morty” and “Friends,” another streaming gold mine which was removed from Netflix’s pool of shows at the start of 2020. 

HBO Max could also pull in a large audience of movie buffs with it’s impressive lineup of recent blockbusters and timeless classics, from  “Joker” and “A Star Is Born”to “Casablanca” and “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. 

But with millions of Americans unemployed, households may overlook HBO Max and instead turn to cheaper video-on-demand platforms like Peacock and Apple TV+. 

This pandemic may define the new streaming services entering the market in the midst of it, for good or for bad. With an ever-growing number of streamers for consumers to choose between, it’ll be a fight for new ones to stand out amongst already established platforms like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+ and Amazon. 

Even outside of these large brands, smaller platforms like Starz, Showtime, Apple TV+ and CBS All Access still have loyal fan bases.

Regardless, it’s clear that some of these streamers, old or new, won’t make it out of the Hollywood streaming wars—or this pandemic—alive.