Quibi—that funky mobile-first video service that’ll either be genius or a spectacular disaster—will officially launch on April 6 with a head-spinning 50 original shows covering a wide variety of genres. It’s also launching with a pretty hefty trial period of 90 days—so you’ll have some time to figure out whether you buy the gimmick.
Quibi, shorthand for “quick bites” will feature from three primary categories: movies in chapters, unscripted shows, and documentaries, and daily essentials. All of the episodes for Quibi’s content will be 10 minutes long or shorter, with daily essentials for things like news and entertainment leaning more toward 5 to 6 minutes. Movies in chapters are Quibi’s longer-form medium and will be told in 7- to 10-minute episodes. Its unscripted and documentary categories will cover everything from various lifestyle topics to sports, company, talk, variety, and other subjects.
Within its first year, Quibi says that it will release 175 original shows and 8,500 “quick bites” of streaming content—a pretty sizable churn of content. But while Quibi hasn’t sold its audience on its service 100 percent just yet, it’s certainly managed to lure no shortage of celebrity talent: Chrissy Teigen, Chance the Rapper, Liam Hemsworth, Sophie Turner, Lena Waithe, and Reese Witherspoon are all attached to Quibi programming. It hasn’t struggled to find funding, either. Just a month out from its launch, the company this week said it closed a second round of funding of $750 million that shot its total investment value to $1.75 billion.
Users won’t have to decide right away whether they’re willing to pony up for the service at $5 a month with ads and $8 per month to get the ad-free version. Quibi told Gizmodo that it’s offering limited time 90-day trials to viewers who head to its website and enter their email before April 6. And because you, like me, may already be paying for what feels like 100 other services, why not score a freebie while you can?