Now that the not-so-popular streaming service Quibi is shutting down after it failed to receive the stardom it once hoped to achieve, some old tweets from the manager of YouTube star Mr Beast may shine some light on a missed opportunity that may have helped it stay afloat.
Over the past year or so, Quibi was thought, at least internally, to have potential to be the next big streaming service that everyone wanted to get their hands on. With large executives who used to work at Disney and big stars attached to the service, there was definitely some merit behind the idea.
Several months later, the service is shutting down, according to company founder Jeffery Katzenberg. After its failure to take off, many aren’t surprised by the news and thought it was only a matter of time before it shut its doors. If some old tweets are to be believed, however, the company once had an opportunity that would have possibly made it successful.
Back in June, Reed Duchscher, the CEO of Night Media and the business manager behind Mr Beast, stated that he and the company attempted to bring the aforementioned YouTuber onto Quibi in the past – but the people behind the service ended up saying no.
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Duchscher never expounded on this, so we’ll never know the reason why the company decided to say no to someone as popular as Mr Beast. It’s possible that they never came up with a good idea for a show centered around him, although this is pure speculation and seems rather unlikely.
We tried, they said no 😭
— Reed (@Reedjd) June 15, 2020
Regardless of the reasoning behind Quibi’s refusal, it almost certainly would have been beneficial for them. Even though the company had major stars attached to it on the outset, getting someone as popular as Mr Beast – who currently has 45 million subscribers – probably would have helped out at least a little bit.
Of course, hindsight is 20/20, and they more than likely didn’t think it was worth it back then.