Justin Timberlake and Kobe Bryant Are in Talks to Make Shows for Quibi

(Bloomberg) -- Pop star Justin Timberlake and basketball legend Kobe Bryant are in talks to create programs for a new online service called Quibi, according to people with knowledge of the matter, joining a video startup backed by titans from Hollywood and the Silicon Valley.

The two globally known stars would produce and appear in the series for service, whose name is short for quick bites, under the deals being discussed, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the negotiations haven’t been completed.

Quibi is a new video service led by Jeffrey Katzenberg, the long-time head of DreamWorks Animation, and Meg Whitman, the former chief executive officer of EBay and Hewlett-Packard. The two have raised $1 billion to build a paid outlet for high-end, short-form video -- promising HBO-like quality in TV shows that run 10 minutes or less.

“This quick-bite form of entertainment should be as big a growth opportunity, as TV was when it came around in the mid-1950s,” Katzenberg said on a panel at Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit in Beverly Hills.

The talks with Timberlake and Bryant offer a glimpse into the programming strategy of the service. The two executives on Wednesday also announced a handful of other creative partners, including “Get Out” producer Jason Blum, Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro and “Training Day” filmmaker Antoine Fuqua.

Quibi plans to produce more than 70 programs in its first year, about half of which will be original series, according to the people. The company plans to spend the equivalent of up to $5 million an hour on those shows and pay the producing studios a fee on top of production costs.

News, Sports

The other half of the slate will be a mix of short news clips, sports and lifestyle videos. The company recently hired Janice Min, former editor-in-chief of the Hollywood Reporter, to oversee entertainment news. Scripted shows would run eight to 10 minutes, while news and other unscripted programs would last five to seven minutes.

Whitman and Katzenberg aim to release the service in late 2019. It will cost $5 a month for those willing to watch advertisements, and $8 a month for those who aren’t.

The two are trying to grab a piece of a mushrooming market for mobile video by delivering Hollywood-quality programming to the short-form market and convincing viewers to pay for its programs.

Crowded Field

The question is whether the new venture can carve out a piece of a crowded market. Consumers already spend more than two hours a day watching clips on their smartphones and have deep ties to several strong competitors, including Netflix Inc., YouTube, and social-media services like Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook.

YouTube, the world’s most popular video site, offers all sorts of short-form video at no cost. Netflix, the world’s most popular paid video site, offers hundreds of TV shows and movies for a monthly fee. Media giants including Walt Disney Co., Apple Inc., AT&T Inc., Facebook Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. are rushing to compete with them online.

Katzenberg and Whitman have been honing their message about why they will succeed. In a recent interview, Katzenberg, a tireless salesman, compared Quibi to HBO, an early cable network that created the tag line “It’s not TV; it’s HBO.” The two used the example in subsequent presentations.

The startup had been calling itself NewTV until it adopted Quibi, which was announced on Wednesday. Though it’s unclear if consumers will take to the new moniker, it already rolls off the tongue for Katzenberg.

“Jeffrey can’t stop saying Quibi,” Whitman said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lucas Shaw in Los Angeles at lshaw31@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net

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