Quibi, the short-form mobile television service founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg, has announced a contract with T-Mobile to become the official telecommunications partner for its launch in April 2020.

T-Mobile will be the exclusive wireless distributor when Quibi launches next spring. However, the arrangement does not mean that only T-Mobile customers will be able to sign up for Quibi: Anyone will be able to sign up for Quibi, regardless of their carrier.

Led by Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman, Quibi plans to launch its service on April 6, 2020 at a price of $5 monthly for the ad-free version and $8 for the ad-free level. The company’s theory is that it could attract a subscriber base of smartphone-oriented Millennials for its premium, bite-sized programming with episodes running less than 10 minutes.

Presumably, T-Mobile will give Quibi prominent placement on its wireless devices and / or offer subscribers some sort of discount. The companies did not disclose any such arrangements, saying they would announce additional details of the partnership later.

“Quibi will deliver premium video content to Millennials on a technology platform that is built exclusively for mobile devices, so a telecommunications partner like T-Mobile, with their broad coverage today and impressive 5g roadmap, is the perfect fit,” Whitman said in a Statement.

In fact, Quiby’s options for courting a wireless carrier history partner have been limited to T-Mobile and Verizon, and the latter may be gun shy on the mobile video space after writing off hundreds of millions of dollars related to the closure of its Go90 service. V

The Los Angeles-based company has raised $1 billion from investors including Disney, WarnerMedia, Viacom, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Alibaba Group and Katzenberg’s investment holding company WndrCo.

Quiby lined up scripted and unscripted projects from entertainment-lists including Guillermo del Toro, Antoine Fuqua, Steven Spielberg, Sam Raimi, Jason Blum, Steven Soderbergh, Trevor Noah, Catherine Hardwick, Anna Kendrick, Doug Lyman and Peter Farrelly. It also has several deals for news and lifestyle content to be part of its Daily Essentials section from partners including NBC News, BBC Global News, CBS’s “60 minutes,” ESPN, TMZ, Telemundo, Weather channel, Entertainment Weekly, Hearst and others.

Even with a big name of Hollywood talent on Board, it’s unclear how well Qibi will fare as the streaming wars heat up, with Disney, Apple, WarnerMedia and NBCU preparing to launch new offerings in the next six months. Katzenberg claims that Quibi beats “white space” with a slate of premium videos specifically for on-the-go, small-screen viewing.

Although Katzenberg has had a hugely successful career, most recently selling DreamWorks animation to Comcast, there is no guarantee Quiby will avoid ending up in the same graveyard that claimed previous mobile video ventures like Verizon Go90 and Jason Kilar Ship.

According to Whitman, Quibi aims to launch 7,000 pieces of original content in the first year and will spend about $ 1.1 billion on programming deals. The startup is looking for an additional $ 500 million in funding to get to the break-even point, she said.

Earlier this year, Quiby said he sold $ 100 million in upfront ad inventory to six advertisers, including Google and P

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