“60 Minutes” is the latest big name news brand to partner up with Quibi — the upcoming and much-discussed short-form streaming service from Hollywood and Silicon Valley giants Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman.
CBS News and Quibi on Tuesday announced a licensing agreement that will bring a new news show called “60 in 6” to the streaming service. Each episode of the weekly series will be six minutes in length and will include a “wide range of compelling stories,” according to the network. It will launch on Quibi when the service debuts next April.
The partnership is a multiyear deal. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The news comes a day after Quibi partnered with another recognizable news outlet: ESPN. The cable sports giant will serve as the exclusive US multi-sports content provider for Quibi’s sports and news programming category, “Daily Essentials.” The new ESPN Quibi show will feature “daily episodes and breaking news covering the biggest stories in sports,” the network said Monday.
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Quibi has also struck deals with NBC News, which will be responsible for two daily news shows, and with the BBC, which will produce daily international news programming for the service.
Quibi, which stands for “Quick Bites,” will offer videos that are 10 minutes or less in length and created for viewing on mobile phones. It is the brainchild of Katzenberg, a former Disney Studios chairman who also helped launch DreamWorks studios, and Whitman, a former eBay CEO.
Quibi doesn’t plan to make any of its own content, instead relying on licensed material. Quibi has also brought in A-list talent from Hollywood to create original content.
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The service has series coming from Steven Spielberg, Jennifer Lopez, Kevin Hart, Guillermo del Toro, Anna Kendrick, Tyra Banks, Sophie Turner and Liam Hemsworth.
The company has also reeled in some deep-pocket investors, including Disney and CNN’s parent company, WarnerMedia, as well as the e-commerce company Alibaba. It has reportedly raised $1 billion in funding.
