Quibi/screenshot
- Quibi, a new mobile-only short-form streaming service, launched on Monday.
- The service is offering anyone who signs up through the end of April a 90-day free trial.
- T-Mobile customers with unlimited family plans can also get Quibi free for a year.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Quibi, a new streaming service designed exclusively for mobile devices built around TV episodes that are 10 minutes or less, launched on Monday. And if potential subscribers are on the fence, there are ways to use Quibi for free for a limited time.
Quibi enters a crowded streaming arena that includes Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video, with more on the way (NBCUniversal launches Peacock in April and WarnerMedia launches HBO Max in May).
To get consumers to take a chance on the service, Quibi - which is named for its "quick bites" of content - is offering a 90-day free trial for any new user who signs up by April 30. Quibi originally only offered the free trial to those who preordered ahead of the service's launch, but then extended the deal.
After the free trial is over, users pay $4.99 a month for the ad-supported version, or can upgrade to an ad-free version for $7.99 per month.
T-Mobile is also offering some customers a free Quibi subscription for one year to those with unlimited family plans.
T-Mobile announced last week that "customers with two or more voice lines at standard rates on Magenta and ONE plans" and "small business customers with up to 12 lines" can get Quibi included in their plans at no extra cost. It offers a similar plan for Netflix and after one year, customers "can choose to continue with one or the other," T-Mobile said.
Quibi isn't alone in doing a telecom deal to ramp up its user base at launch.
Verizon offered a similar deal for Disney Plus, which launched in November. New and existing Verizon Wireless Unlimited customers, new Fios Home Internet customers, and new 5G Home Internet customers could get Disney Plus free for a year.
But Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg doesn't see the service as a direct rival to other platforms like Disney Plus.
"From the standpoint of people's certainly subscription money and time - yes, in a macro sense, maybe we are in the same larger sea," Katzenberg told Business Insider earlier this year. "But we, as a use case, couldn't be more different and therefore really are not competing with them directly."
Quibi launched with 50 original titles, but they have been hit-or-miss with critics.
"Survive," a drama starring Sophie Turner and Corey Hawkins, has a 33% Rotten Tomatoes critic score. But "Most Dangerous Game," starring Liam Hemsworth and Christoph Waltz, has an 83% critic score.
The platform plans to release 175 original shows in its first year.