Quibi signs Canadian marketing and content deal with Bell

Quibi, the short-form streamer backed by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, has revealed a content and marketing deal with Canadian telco Bell. 

Bell will also become Quibi’s exclusive marketing partner in the telecommunications category. The telco will market the streamer to Canadians via its media and mobility marketing channels.

Ahead of the platform’s April 6 launch, Bell has signed on to be the “exclusive Canadian news and sports provider” for Quibi. It will create two series exclusively for Quibi’s ‘Daily Essentials’ section, which features curated news and entertainment content on a daily basis.

In particular, Bell Media’s CTV News will produce a daily news programme covering “breaking news and the biggest stories of the day”, which will stream on Quibi mornings and evenings on weekdays and mornings on weekends. TSN, Canada’s leading sports network, will produce a daily sports information update streaming every morning, 7 days a week.

The operator said that further details will be announced at a later date.

Katzenberg, founder and chairman of Quibi, said: “We are excited to partner with Bell and Canada’s top news and sports brands from Bell Media to deliver daily curated programs that will provide Canadians all of the biggest moments and stories of the day in quick bites.”

Mirko Bibic, president and CEO of Bell, said: “As Canada’s provider of the country’s most-watched content and the leader in mobile innovation, Bell is uniquely positioned to partner with Quibi on this exciting new evolution in entertainment.Our goal is to advance how Canadians connect with each other and the world, and we look forward to powering the launch of Quibi in Canada with the full strength of Bell’s unmatched wireless and content creation resources.”

The announcement comes at the end of a week where Quibi revealed it has raised an additional US$750 million in its latest funding round. In total, the start-up company has raised a staggering US$1.75 billion ahead of its launch.

Despite this, some critics have aired skepticism over the project. They argue that the service – which will cost US$5 per month with ads or US$8 per month without – would be better served as a free-to-view product. Others have expressed concern that the company has not demonstrated its mobile app less than a month away from launch