The Roku Channel is getting its first batch of Quibi shows on May 20th, Roku has announced. There’ll be 30 so-called “Roku Originals” available to stream initially, but Roku says it eventually plans to release all 75 of Quibi’s titles on its service. They’ll be available to watch free of charge in the US, Canada, and UK, with ads inserted in between individual short-form episodes. Roku announced in January that it would be exclusively licensing Quibi’s library.
Included in this first batch of shows are the seventh season of Reno 911!, the cooking documentary Shape of Pasta, Chrissy’s Court (starring Chrissy Teigen), and Kevin Hart’s Die Hart. In the US, The Roku Channel is available on iOS, Android, select Samsung TVs, Amazon Fire TV devices, and the web, in addition to Roku’s own hardware. Meanwhile in the UK, it’s available on Sky Q and Now TV devices, as well as Roku devices.
Some of these shows have big names attached to them, but that didn’t stop Quibi itself from shutting down after just six months of operation. Despite this failure, Roku argues that it’s in a much better position to make a success of this content than Quibi was. For starters, its Roku Channel already reaches tens of millions of viewers, and they won’t have to pay anything extra to watch Quibi’s content. Roku also says Quibi’s short-form nature (each episode lasts 10 to 15 minutes) provides natural breaks for advertising.
Other than inserting ads, Roku says it hasn’t made any major tweaks to Quibi’s content. Of course, watching on your living room TV means there isn’t the option to view the shows in portrait like there was with the Quibi app, but Roku argues that the content was filmed in high enough quality that you shouldn’t be able to tell that they were originally made with phone screens in mind. All of the content will stream at 1080p resolution.
Roku announced it would be exclusively licensing Quibi’s library of content in January, and a job listing the following month suggests Roku has plans to develop its own in-house content. The Roku Channel currently hosts over 250,000 movies and TV episodes.
Here’s the full list of 30 Quibi titles that will be available to stream on May 20th.
- #FreeRayshawn
- About Face
- Bad Ideas with Adam Devine
- Barkitechture
- Big Rad Wolf
- Blackballed
- Centerpiece
- Chrissy’s Court
- Cup of Joe
- Die Hart
- Dishmantled
- Dummy
- Fight Like a Girl
- Flipped
- The Fugitive
- Gayme Show
- Iron Sharpens Iron
- Last Looks
- Let’s Roll with Tony Greenhand
- Most Dangerous Game
- Murder House Flip
- Murder Unboxed
- Nightgowns
- Prodigy
- Punk’d
- Reno 911!
- Royalties
- Shape of Pasta
- Thanks a Million
- You Ain’t Got These
These shows will be available exclusively on The Roku Channel. In the case of Reno 911!, previous seasons are available to watch elsewhere, but the formerly Quibi-exclusive season 7 is now exclusive to Roku.
To coincide with the release of the shows, Roku is discounting several of its players. In the US, the Streaming Stick Plus will be discounted by $10, the Streambar and Roku Ultra will be discounted by $30, and the Roku Express will be discounted by $5. The deals will be active between May 16th and 29th.