Not much to say these days, but before I go off on an extended journey again, a quick note about Quibi.
I’d meant to make this post months ago when Quibi was first announced; it’s both a surprise and not a surprise that it would flame out, burn and crash so quickly.
But the main idea percolating in my head about Quibi was this: why didn’t they develop a few soap operas?
And no, not just because I’m a fan of the genre.
Think about it.
Quibi needed content that would be habit forming, that would make users subscribe and return to the platform on a regular basis.
Serialized storytelling would have been a great hook. Especially if the deep pockets at Quibi had paid talented writers and actors, and cut back on network interference.
Irna Phillips was navigating a relatively new (to the masses) medium when her soaps were on TV in the 1950s, and quite a few soaps in those days crashed and burned before the ones we watched for years took flight.
Quibi could have programmed a mix of old content and new.
Exciting new shows by new writers and creative minds, for sure.
And I would have welcomed 10 to 15 minute increments of [fill in the blank of any P&G show here] and I bet AMC and OLTL fans would do the same for their beloved shows.
Sadly, the platform itself has already crashed.
There *has* to be some way for people to make money, create art, employ writers and actors and do so on a scale that works and attracts an audience.
But the soap genre still hasn’t yet figured out that formula. Luckily, people creating and producing web soaps are still tinkering under the hood!
A | THOUSAND | OTHER | WORLDS 
Good points. Quibi was the perfect platform to try that too.
Frankly, I’m surprised that Hulu or Netflix or even Amazon Prime hasn’t developed a soap that will keep people coming back for more. Perhaps Prospect Park’s flame out has scared others off?
I think so, James. It is a big investment. No one has found that magic formula where costs can be lower, actors, writers and crew can still be paid a fair amount, and everyone makes money. But Quibi would have been the perfect scale to try something smaller.