Quibi Created A New Viewing Experience Called "Turnstyle"

All the kids can't stop talking about Quibi! Go out on any street corner in any city and all you'll hear is "Quibi this" and "Quibi that"! As we draw closer to the launch of the new streaming service designed to provide short-form content, the people demand more info. And that info is here. During CES in Las Vegas today, " Tom Conrad, Quibi Chief Product Officer, revealed that the streaming service has developed a whole new viewing experience called "Turnstyle" that enables users to flip their phone back and forth between landscape and portrait view. But will such a development entice subscribers?

Quibi is trying to brand itself as "Netflix for your phone" – that is, the type of streaming service that's specifically tailored for mobile watching. Which begs the question: just what aspect ratio will the Quibi shows be presented in? The answer, it seems, is a little complicated. Speaking with Deadline during CES, Quibi Chief Product Officer Tom Conrad spoke about "Turnstyle", a viewing experience that "allows the user to move at will between full-screen landscape and full-screen portrait."

Conrad elaborated:

"When I hold my phone in landscape, I get exactly the edit that's a creator output. And when I rotate to portrait, I similarly get a bespoke experience as they specified for portrait. So there are two separate edits, a landscape that in a portrait edit and I can shift seamlessly between one and the other — all integrated by a single audio track."

You can watch a sound-free example of what he's talking about here.

Conrad went on to say that "switching back and forth from landscape to portrait will give you two different perspectives of the same story which can enhance the storytelling experience."

So what do you think? Does this sort of thing appeal to you? Quibi certainly hopes so, and they've lined up plenty of talented folks to draw in subscribers. Steven Spielberg, Jennifer Lopez, the Russo Brothers, am Hemsworth, Queen Latifah, Trevor Noah, Andy Samberg, Will Arnett, Will Forte, Kiefer Sutherland, Gabrielle Union, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicole Richie, Sophie Turner, Corey Hawkins, Kevin Hart, and many more are all involved with Quibi in some way.

Quibi launches April 6.