Quibi senior executives take a pay cut to “tighten their belts”

While Quibi was starting to add long awaited features to its short-form video streaming service that were a glaring omission at launch it seems that the economic fallout is causing Quibi’s senior executives to take salary cuts.

According to Gizmodo, Quibi’s chief executive officer Meg Whitman and its founder Jeffery Katzenberg will each take a 10% salary cut. Gizmodo obtained a copy of an internal memo that laid out how Quibi is looking for ways to “tighten their belts” even though in the memo, they say they are hiring “a dozen” new employees and are “in a good financial position.”

“In regard to tightening our belt, our senior leadership team has volunteered to take a 10% pay cut because it’s the right thing to do,” Katzenberg and Whitman wrote. “We are excited about the future. As we shared in our most recent company meeting, the best is yet to come. We are confident in Quibi and the work that you are creating every day.”

Jeff Katzenburg and Meg Whitman

They went on to say that Quibi is “not laying off staff as a part of cost saving measures.” A Wall Street Journal report says otherwise, in which pay cuts would be the first and that leadership is in talks about further cash saving measures, like potentially laying off 10% of its 250-employee workforce.

Quibi isn’t exactly thriving during this economic downturn. With so many people being laid off, people has less disposable income. For the people who are still employed, their futures are not necessarily certain either, which could cause people to tighten their own belts and ditch the subscription services that they decide that they don’t “need.”

Related Reading: Quibi Stories

Quibi Overview

The service is from the mind of Jeffery Katzenberg and former HP CEO Meg Whitman. It was designed specifically for smartphones and the shows are like movies that you consume in small 10 minute or less portions. After spending $1 Billion on shows and their stars we will see if people really want to stare at their small screens at home during the pandemic or opt for larger ones.

Since it was designed for smartphones their are no other apps available not even a web app. If you are willing to watch video on your phone when you laptop, tablet and TV are nearby then checkout the show lineup below.

One of the neat tricks that app has up its sleeve is the ability to play the content in either landscape or portrait. It seems to handle the rotating well, it even reconfigured the credits for the orientation. The rotating of your phone can sometime reveal areas of the shot not seen in one orientation, so you might find yourself with a pop socket rotating your phone during the shows.

T-Mobile customers will be able to trial Quibi for 1 year.

There are a few glaring omissions we need to point out:

• No user profiles like Netflix
• Only one stream at a time
• Just phone apps, no TV, Laptop, Tablet apps
• AirPlay support for casting to TV’s

The price for the service is $4.99 (with Ads) or $7.99 (Ad-free). The price seems high considering the only way to enjoy the content is on one phone at a time. Might be worth trying for 90-days though.