Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Quibi hires ex-DC Boss, eyes deeper TV presence

DC Entertainment’s former president Diane Nelson has joined Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Quibi – an entertainment platform built for easy, on-the-go, mobile viewing, and backed by media companies such as Disney and ITV.

Nelson will act as head of operations for the platform, which plans to launch at the end of 2019 after raising over $1bn in initial funding.

The exec joins Quibi after departing Warner Bros.-owned DC last year, ending a 20-year run with the business. During her time at DC, Nelson spearheaded the development of DC Universe movies and 11 scripted titles based on DC characters.

Nelson confirmed her new role in a recent Facebook post (below).

Quibi plans to launch with a premium line up of original, short-form series comprising of ten episodes each. It will have two subscription tiers including one ad-free addition and one without.

After retrieving Quibi’s pitch deck, Digiday has reported that the platform will look to stretch beyond mobile devices and appear on screen via TV devices such as Apple TV, Roku and games consoles such as Xbox. This pits the platform against major SVOD services such as Netflix, particularly as pricey programming is at the centre of its strategy.

Only 20% of Quibi’s estimated budget is being reserved for digital spend, everything else would go toward high-profile projects, which will be made by big, established entertainment studios and producers, according to the publisher.

Investors in Quibi include Disney, Entertainment One, Fox, ITV, Lionsgate, MGM, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Viacom, and WarnerMedia.