UPDATED 20:14 EDT / OCTOBER 11 2018

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Katzenberg and Whitman tip new details about mobile streaming video service Quibi

There’s money to be made in short-form mobile streaming video, at least according to former Walt Disney Co. Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg and former Hewlett Packard Enterprise Inc. head Meg Whitman (pictured), who today unveiled the name of their new company that aims to do exactly that.

Called Quibi, short for “quick bites,” the service aims at 25- to 35-year-olds with its “episodic programming” that comes in 15-minute bites — still like movies or TV series but with shorter episodes.

Previously known as “NewTV,” the service, which has been under development for two years, has already raised $1 billion from investors Disney, Viacom Communications Inc., Twenty-First Century Fox Inc., Lions Gate Entertainment Corp, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. and Sony Corp.

Along with the announcement of the name, Katzenberg, speaking at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit, also said that the service has signed movie makers Guillermo del Toro and Antoine Fuqua and producer Jason Blum to produce exclusive content.

According to Tubefilter, Del Toro’s project is said to be a zombie tale, Fuqua’s is “a modern version of ‘Dog Day Afternoon,’” and Blum’s, called “Wolves and Villagers,” is “Fatal Attraction”-esque. A previously announced project, called “50 States of Fear,” is being led by horror movie director Sam Raimi.

The cost and debut of the service remain unknown. Both Whitman (pictured) and Katzenberg are on record as saying that they are not looking to compete with Netflix Inc. and that the service will be focused on mobile devices. Some reports suggest that it will launch sometime next year with a Hulu-style tiered model with a base tier that includes advertising and a more expensive upper tier sans-advertising.

“Something cool is coming from Hollywood and Silicon Valley — quick bites of captivating entertainment, created for mobile by the best talent, designed to fit perfectly into any moment of your day,” the holding page for Quibi reads.

Although comparisons are being made to Netflix, Hulu Inc., Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime and even HBO’s subscription services, the real 1,000-pound gorilla in the room when it comes to short-form content and popularity on mobile devices is the Google LLC-owned YouTube.

YouTube has delved into subscription services through YouTube Red and has developed its own unique programing but it’s not clear how successful those efforts have been. Whether successful or not, though, is not the point: YouTube dominates mobile video in general. In the U.S., YouTube is said to have 69 million mobile video users versus Netflix on 38.4 million, Amazon on 20.7 million and Hulu on 19.3 million.

There’s always space for new players if they have an appealing service, but Quibi’s will need to take eyeballs away from YouTube — and that’s no easy task.

Photo: whiteafrican/Flickr

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