How Spotify Is Turning Podcasts Into the New TV Industry

Spotify is no longer just an audio platform. Video podcasts are now at the centre of its growth strategy — and according to Spotify’s Rowan Collinson, they are rapidly becoming one of the most important opportunities in the digital-first production economy.  

In this episode of TellyCast, Justin Crosby speaks to Rowan Collinson, Audience Lead at Spotify, about why video podcasts are exploding, how creators are building entire IP ecosystems around shows, and what traditional TV producers need to understand about succeeding in social video and podcasting.

Rowan explains why podcasting is becoming a natural entry point for TV indies moving into digital-first content, how Spotify’s Partner Programme creates new revenue opportunities, and why genres like comedy, true crime and interview formats are thriving on the platform.

The conversation also explores data, retention metrics, creator monetisation, the rise of vertical video, Channel 4’s move into Spotify video podcasts, and why the future belongs to always-on content brands rather than traditional six-part TV commissions.

Visit Tubular Labs

Sign up for The Drop newsletter

Transcript

Justin Crosby: [00:00:00] Hi, I am Justin Crosby and welcome to another episode of Telecast. I'm really thrilled this week to have our guest, Rowan Collinson from Spotify. Rowan, how are you doing? 

Rowan Collinson: Hi Justin. Thanks for having me. Great to be here. Not at all. It's great to have you here and, uh. It's kind of quite nerve wracking for me 'cause it's like, you know, we're doing a show that's going out on Spotify with the audience lead of Spotify in the uk.

So better be good. So welcome and uh, it's great to see you and thanks for being on the show. So obviously we've seen Spotify really start to focus on video, so we'll, we'll talk a little bit about that. But first of all, just tell us a little bit about your role at Spotify and what that entails.

So I've been at Spotify for about seven and a half years now. And I've been working in and around the kind of pushing to podcasts, which started in the company in 2017. And really my role has been focused on kind of editorial and audience growth. So working with creators to help build [00:01:00] audiences on platform and to present our content in new and compelling ways to get lists, to get user to engage.

And kind of watching and listening to it. 

It's, I mean, it's been an extraordinary explosion, the podcast market, which doesn't seem to be showing any sign of abating and it's obviously morphing and changing almost into TV in its own right. What are the, what do you think the key drivers of that been? I mean, obviously Spotify's been one of them but what, what do you think about, you know, how the, how this podcasting industry has changed over the, the last sort of five or six years and what, what's the reason for that, do you 

think?

Audio podcasts were fantastic because they allowed creators to build an audience, audience by kind of intimacy and routine. And that was really fantastic. But discovery was always a real problem. Audio has always been really hard to kind of market and you know, there's been many attempts over the years to do it in different forms.

[00:02:00] Um, so I think obviously people started recording podcasts in vision partly so we could have clips to put on social. Yeah. And that journey has gone to, well if you're recording clips, why not publish the whole thing? And what I do think is that video has really supercharged discovery and reach of those creators now, and it's allowed your podcast to really become the kind of centrifugal piece of your kind of ecosystem as a creator.

You know? It's the living and breathing thing that every week can allow you a content funnel of things which can feed your different social channels. And it can also build a community which allows you to go into live. It allows you to go into merch, it can go into newsletters. It's a really, really, really kind of flexible asset.

And for me, that's why kind of video makes so much sense in the medium now. 

Well, yeah, that was gonna be my next question actually is, is, you know, why. Video is such [00:03:00] a, a focus for Spotify in podcasting right now. 

Yeah, I mean, what we've seen is that video really deepens user engagement with our platform. Our users love video.

390 million of them have watched a video podcast on platform. 70% have watched video in the foreground. So it really feels like a very natural evolution for us. And I mean, one of the reasons I love working at Spotify is we are really focused on making sure that our users, when we spend time with us, it's time well spent.

Whether that's kind of watching a really great interview show watching a load of eighties pop videos like I did last night doing a fitness class with a PE in video content, we've just onboarded. We want our users to come away from a timeless bottom by feeling like we've got no regrets.

So video plays a really kind of key part in that. I think for creators, publishers and producers, it's, it's twofold. Then it's [00:04:00] about reach, and that can be local reach, but also global reach and also now revenue with a Spotify partner programme we've launched. I think chatting to any creator, as I'm sure you do all the time, right, reaching revenue are two different things and Spotify are able to offer that.

What's not to like. 

Yeah, absolutely. Well, we'll, we'll talk a little bit more about the partner programme in a little while if we can, but I think, you know, one of the great opportunities now, particularly for TV producers who are confronted with this new digital first reality, this new marketplace that we are looking at and the way that the traditional TV industry changing and, uh, and adapting it gives creators and studios and anybody who's got a great idea the opportunity to start to build a real ecosystem, like you were saying earlier on, about, you know, creating the podcast to begin with.

And then there's, I recently talked about the how to make Money in digital event is about the octopus strategy where you're putting your, uh, [00:05:00] your, your IP in the centre and all of these different arms, uh, uh, ways to monetize that. So I mean, I think it's a, it is an amazing opportunity to actually create ip, which, and IP ownership is obviously really, really crucial.

And, and we're seeing so many studios being really, really successful in that area. 

Yeah, massively. And I think it's a real step change for people who've worked in traditional TV production where, you know, you'll spend, some six to 12 months developing an idea, filming it, shooting it, delivering six episodes to a broadcaster and saying, well.

That's that. For Spotify, that doesn't really work because, the content which works best on our platform is kind of always on shows because audiences with a product like ours, which is portable mobile, love the routine. And, they're also used to content, which kind of is evolving every week.

And I think it's really interesting you look at a couple of the biggest shows on our platform. So for example, diary of the [00:06:00] CEO or the rest is history. If you go back kind of five years ago to their first episodes, they really are radically different to what you have now. And I think, you know, in both those cases, the producers there, you know, flight Story and Goal Hanger are really smart in that they really look at their data, they take on board the audience feedback through comments and on social and really feed that into the show and iterate week on week.

And I think that success is so is down to that really. And I think having brilliant talent as well. And I think that traditional TV producers could learn a lot from that approach. 

Yeah. Well, let's talk about that a little bit about TV producer, because I, I think for TV producers moving into the digital first space, the easiest, the most logical, most cost effective, and the most likely to succeed with a kernel of an idea is podcasting, isn't it?

And, uh, [00:07:00] and as you say, you know, it's the idea about iterating and finding your audience and, and work, working out what works and what doesn't. What do you think the, perhaps the, the key pointers for TV producers who may be moving into the podcasting market might consider, and maybe what, what are the common mistakes you think that they might make?

I think understand the market. You know, one look at the Spotify charts in the UK will tell you that, you know, the, some of the genres which do really well for us, for example, a comedy, um, true crime, kind of factual and it's worth looking at the kind of areas you're strong in and really thinking, well, what kind of podcast adjacent we sometimes call from ideas do you have?

And how could. That help you kind of come to market. And I think coming armed with that kind of knowledge is really helpful. What's great about traditional television production is they have great relationships with talent, right? And they're used to being able to produce things at volume and things at [00:08:00] scale.

So they've got all the bits there. It's just a kind of rethinking of how you do it and how your production processes. I think the other thing from talking to a lot of TV producers as well is that in TV you work hard to a deadline to deliver to a commissioner, and everything's gotta look pitch perfect and beautiful, and everything's gotta be spot on for linear, tx.

I mean, with podcasts, it's a much more forgiving medium. You know, you can experiment, you can change your lighting in the second episode, you can change that. You know, if a format point doesn't work, you can move it around. Like the audience don't really care. They, if the conversation is good and the content is compelling and interesting, they'll stick around.

Yeah. That kernel of an idea, if you're serving a need that's not met anywhere else Exactly. They can, you, you can iterate around that. Yeah, 

exactly. I mean, I think the other thing as well is the availability of, of data. I think [00:09:00] often when you make telly, you're just working in the dark apart from, you know, some barb figures and some audience insights, which might have come out of two years ago here, with a platform like Spotify and Spotify for creators, you've got living, breathing data around what your audience are doing and their behaviour, where they are, how old they are when they're listening, whether they're foregrounding or backgrounding.

You know, it's really powerful stuff. And when you combine that with the comments on platform you can get a real sense of your audience really quickly, and that can help you tailor your content and iterate much faster. 

Yeah. So well let's, let's take the example of a TV producer who is maybe has got a great idea now, or there might be delving through their archives of, uh, great TV shows that some commissioner turned down and they, they're like dusting that off and thinking, actually that was an amazing idea that we had.

Maybe we can do it as a podcast. I mean, what would you say what practical [00:10:00] advice would you say to, would you give to a TV producer maybe in the first 30 days of them creating this podcast? Say it's a weekly show, or, well, should it be a weekly show? First of all, what's the, what's the sort of cadence perhaps that you might consider what is, uh, you know, what are the basic steps and, and practical advice that you would have for them?

I think really to make a successful show on Spotify, you need to be always on. So you need to be aiming for that kind of magic. 50 weeks a year mark, we'll give you a couple of weeks off over Christmas holiday. But regularity and consistency will help you build routine with your audience.

Yeah, and that's really, I've been 

really remiss in this area for the last, uh, few weeks, but I'm back on the horse again now. But yeah, but I, I, I've been really aware of that actually as well. The fact that Sam Barcroft once told me it's like, you know, you have to turn up every week for your audience.

And it's, it's really important, isn't it to, uh, to maintain that relationship and build, build that sort of library [00:11:00] and audience trust as well. 

Yeah, and I think that that's it, right? It's a, it is a relationship with an audience. You know, this isn't a passive audience like watching on a tv. This is an audience who, who are invested in it because of, of that intimacy that the format brings.

And, if you can build that bond with an audience, it can really help you, you know, build a community, which in turn can let you do other more exciting things and create new revenue streams. So when I was, when I, if I were a TV producer, kind of looking at the ideas I've got or things I might wanna reverse, and I'd really think, well, what's here that I could do weekly and regularly, which would be simple to produce, and also what is there that people can latch onto in it?

What's the thing what's the thing that's in it that, you know, I could potentially spin out into a live show, or I could spin into a club, you know, or I could spin into a newsletter. Really thinking of it as an ecosystem rather than just a [00:12:00] show. 

Yeah. Yeah. That's really important, isn't it?

Because it is, it is IP at the end of the day. It's not just a show, it's an actual as we mentioned earlier on, it's the, it's the centre of a sort of content universe or potential content universe. Yeah. And 

I mean, I, I started my career in independent production, so I've sat on both sides of the fence.

And, you know, I remember in the naughties we had real battles with commissioners to allow us to, you know, we wanted to do live shows around, shows we made, you know, and we wanted to do, do more with 'em, you know, we wanted to try and get 'em onto TV over time, and it's like, it was just impossible.

So owning your own content and owning your own destiny in this market is fantastic. And I think. Video podcasts and Spotify can play a really key role in that. 

Yeah. And there's some great examples of that. You mentioned earlier on, I think gold ha gold hanger really sort of set Yeah.

The standard, haven't they? Yeah. Been able to create amazing podcast shows that build audiences, but also I think they've got a, they've [00:13:00] got a whole festival happening on the South Bank in London this year around those shows. And and, 

and if you're an ale Stan for the rest is history, you can go to, um, Hampton Court this summer and meet the talent and take part in all kinds of activities.

Yeah, I mean, what, what they've built is fantastic and, you know, it's Spotify, we're very lucky to have a close relationship with them, and it's been been a really satisfying thing to, to watch 'em grow and to work with them. 

Yeah. No, it is been, I mean, many broadcasters I've spoken to over the last few years, we're always trying to find that fresh look at history, how to, how they can bring new, younger, fresher audiences to history, which, you know, and they've been able to do that in a really, really effective way.

Yeah, definitely. So you mentioned data, and that's one of the things that, uh, producers and creators, well, not necessarily creators if you like, but TV producers moving into going digital first. There's enormous amounts of data across all the different platforms that they're publishing on. When it comes [00:14:00] to the data that they're seeing in Spotify, in the backend.

What are the key sort of points that they should take notice of? What are the key watch outs for them? What should, what are, what's the data they should be looking for? Because it's not only downloads, is it, it's it's other aspects as well. 

Yeah, I mean, the great thing is that Spotify creators has a really comprehensive set of kind of metrics that you can see which update on a daily basis.

And if I was a producer now, really what I'd be concentrating on is retention. You know, how long are people listening to my show? Where are they dropping off? What does that graph look like? And you can do that at a show in an episode level basis. And I think for me, that's, that's a really key thing, which will help you kind of grow your show, because the longer people are listening to and the more they're kind of coming back to it, episode after episode will help you really kind of build a compelling show.

You know, I, if I'd had that when I was a producer 15 years ago, I would've lapped this up. 

[00:15:00] Yeah. So as well as obviously that data, the key question that everybody's always got is how do you make money? How does a creator make money on Spotify? So from a video first perspective, um, you know, why should a producer focus on Spotify and how can they generate revenue?

And how, how does that work? 

So back at the start of 2025, we launched a Spotify partner programme. And the premise is very simple, really. You join a programme and you upload your video to Spotify for creators. We insert ads into it and those ads go out on Spotify on the free tier, but in the premium tier we remove those ads from the premium subscribers and we give you the money.

So it's a win-win really for your audience. It's a great way of, of them hearing your content with or viewing your content rather with less interruptions. And for [00:16:00] us it creates a kind of added value to our premium users. And for you, it's revenue that you can put back into your show to help grow it.

So you've got that. And what's great about that is obviously it doesn't stop you from doing other kind of sponsorships around that piece, whether it's branded cushions on your sofas while you're doing an interview, or whether it's doing burnt in kind of adverts or reads or working with a third party sales house to do that.

What it does give you is the partner programme gives you a kind of consistent revenue schemes. In fact, one of, uh, many tentacles of your content octopus that you talked about earlier 

in terms of a lot of TV producers and a lot of content creators have been looking at, at YouTube, for example, and looking at, a million views will deliver, what many people might think is not a great deal of money.

It's kind of peanuts, really. I mean, how does Spotify compare to that in terms of, you know, I I I know there's, there's probably not a, a purview calculation as such, but can you just give us a bit of a sense [00:17:00] of how that's different on, uh, on Spotify? 

I mean, it's really hard to compare platform to platform as you know, for certain types of contents we've seen Nevin at creators, uh, are finding it uh, a, a really good place to be.

For example, we've worked with a curator creator called Fure. He's a true crime creator, um, who's from Australia, based in London, and she's been actively telling us that, you know, her, her show is now making more money on Spotify than it was on YouTube. So it's great to hear those kind of stories from creators.

Yeah. And you talked about, you know, the, the, the Spotify charts and what's really working from a content perspective. Can you just talk us through that in a little bit more detail? What's, what really works well in terms of genres on Spotify? 

Yeah, of course. And it's actually been really interesting because we've seen kind of three genres, I'd say really, really pop at the moment.

Firstly kind of comedy is having a real moment for us. And it's this very kind of young alternative kind of comedy. Um, one of the [00:18:00] breakout creators for us has been Fin versus History, which is fin Taylor and Horatio Gould, who are both fantastic. Yeah, I love that show. Their show. They come on in, what can a described as kind of 1970s university lecturer suits.

Yeah. And take a historical subject and then destroy it in the kind of most surreal and vaguely obscene ways. Yeah. And yeah, it's, 

it's pretty, it's it's pretty out there, isn't it? It 

it's, it's, it's really fantastic and you know, it's been an absolute delight to see about Rocket Up the charts over the last kind of 18 months and um, they built a fantastic community around that, which has been able to go live.

Finn's got a book coming out later this year and I think that shows like that shows like Ghost Ho, which is, um, two female comics doing a kind of paranormal investigation show. And Mike Rice and Victoria Lon, who were two, uh, London Irish comedians who do a show called Micing, Victoria's Guide to Parenting, which contains no parenting.

Those shows are really great examples of shows which have [00:19:00] done really well in the partner programme and have built community and, and audience. So, young comedians experimenting with long form visual comedy is definitely an area which is popping. Interview shows, I mean I think, obviously a core thing for audio podcasts, but I think naturally that has extended to video too.

At Spotify in the UK we're very lucky to work with Louis Far Rue and his team at Mind House and he's done a really great job of transferring his unique style into that format. And that's been been really successful for us. Well our team in the US have been working with Amy Pola on Good Hang.

I watched her with bid ish on we're way here this of today. Uh, and again, that won a Golden Globe earlier this year, which was super exciting for everything involved. And, in the last six months everyone from Ramish ran to Olivia Outward to Joe Marla have launched kind of video interview shows.

So, that is a format that the audiences really can't get enough of. And I think it's relatively easy to produce and giving [00:20:00] the opportunities for talent to be able to. Talk in depth about things they're passionate about. You know, that's a real, that's a real thing for us. 

Yeah. I mean, do, does that base the question You talked about, you know, lots of great talent who are, are running their own podcast shows and, and talent are approaching the new production economy economy in different ways as well.

Obviously now, particularly those who might typically have looked TV has been their main path. You know, there's still loads and loads of different opportunities for them. Two questions I suppose. First of all, does that mean that the, it's oversaturated when it comes to a, the talent market and the talent podcasts that are out there is are there still fresh new opportunities do you think for talent led podcasts?

And second of all, do you need talent? Does it, does talent have to be, you know, is, is that what gets you to first base if you like? 

I think there's always opportunities in new formats. Like, you know, there's [00:21:00] always innovation and you know, and you've seen that with Ramesh's show, which, you know, in the last six months has become one of the biggest shows of us.

It's a really fantastic Yeah. Fantastic show in, 

in just a few months, right? Yeah, 

yeah, exactly. You know, and I think, watching Ramesh and Louis far geeking out about nineties hip hop and both writing to hip hop connection under pen names, you know, you can really see why. Yeah. Um, but I also think there's room for other genres as well.

I mean, true crime for example Yeah. Has been a genre which has traditionally done very well in audio podcasting. And it's very, been very interesting to see creators and production companies using their skills in this area to kind of transfer it into kind of a visual space. So you've got people like Ellen o' Neil, who are really kind of popping with a very simple kind of visual led storytelling format.

But, other companies like Curve Media in the uk who, you know, started as a traditional [00:22:00] factual production company but have been able to take the skills they learn. In that area and led by Naomi channel, who's fantastic there, who's one of our creative leads build up a show called Totally True Crime, which is a weekly, always on true crime show.

And the visuals are made using video sourced from public domain body cam footage, stuff that you would've done in traditional TV production, but translated into this space. And because of that, they've been able to make a really effective cost effective always on show, which, is building audience and bringing them in revenue, which found now using to explore other areas.

Yeah. And I think that's a really exciting model for people. 

So true crime, comedy and interview are probably the three that you pick out there. Yeah. I mean, do you think there are any that are any genres that are underserved particularly, you know, do you see? I dunno. I mean, I've seen loads of football.

Obviously football's gonna be huge over the [00:23:00] World Cup, and that's, there's no shortage of, no 

shortage of football podcasts, 

of, of, of former footballers as well. Turning podcasts as well. Yeah. But I mean, do you think what are the maybe other areas that you see maybe starting to bubble up develop that might be interesting to watch?

We'd definitely love to see more longer form content with younger kind of female Gen Z creators. I think that group has been served very well by short form and vertical video. But I think there's a really. Big space for that. And, you know, shows like the Girls' Bathroom have done well in that, that area.

And I think that there's, there's definitely room in that market for more voices. 

So finally, well, two, two last questions. Uh, penultimate question is that, you know, for TV producers who want to get into space, I mean, obviously there's no barrier that can just go and do it pretty much, it's all pretty straightforward in terms of starting your first podcast.

But how can they work with you? How, you know, what sort of scale of podcast do you start, [00:24:00] maybe start a conversation with when it comes to a, a partnership manager? You know, you mentioned the Ramesh, you mentioned, uh, Louis Thru for example. You know, these are, these are really, really successful.

How do you work with them in a sort of collaborative way? 

We work with partners of all of all different shapes and sizes really from, big established studios like Z 55, um, and, you know, kind of traditional TV production companies through to bigger beast like Goal Hanger platform through to solely independent creators.

You know, I mean, a good example of that is, is Mike and Victoria, who I mentioned earlier who just came to us, the programme is anyone can join and, you know, I just advise reaching out to us we're, we are really open, you know, and if we feel that, you know, the, the content's strong and there's an opportunity from them, we, you know, we'd, we'd love to hear from you.

Yeah, it was interesting. I saw that your deal with channel four. Yes. So there's a, there's, uh, a whole lot of their channel four point Yeah. Oh. Content that's actually coming out on, on Spotify as well. So that's really interesting. 

Yeah. 

[00:25:00] Development that's been 

really exciting. And I think credit to Channel four for being really forward thinking in this space.

And, you know, I know, um, they've had a real success with Channel 4.0 over the last couple of years, and you know, from Channel Four's perspective, they understand that spot EFI is a home of younger. Diverse audiences and therefore with a format like Don't Get Cash Pack fished with Nella Rose. Yeah.

It's an absolute perfect fit for us. So, so yeah, we're looking forward to continuing that relationship and deepening it with it. 

It's really interesting. I think as well just, just looking at the market when you've seen, you know, really established radio companies like Global and Bauer and others, they're starting to be major players in the podcast space visual podcast space.

So it's almost like radio businesses are becoming TV businesses or video first companies as well. And you know, I've seen they're acquiring Fellas Studios for example and uh, and others. It's uh, it's a really interesting and dynamic [00:26:00] marketplace, isn't it? 

Yeah, it's really exciting, you know, and, and credit for global, for their ambition and energy in this space, really.

You know, they're one of our partners and yeah, I think everyone in the industry was really impressed by the Fellows acquisition. You know, they're a fantastic studio who really understand Gen Z audiences and, if I was, if I was wanting to reach young audiences, I'd wanna be buying 'em as well.

Yeah. So finally looking ahead then road to the next two, three years. I, I mean, I'm really excited 'cause it's still such a young industry. It's really sort of 10 years old or so, really, isn't it? You know, something like that. It's not so it's, it still feels like at a, a point where it's developing and it's almost almost picking up pace, particularly when it comes to Spotify and, and video as well.

Over the next two, three years. What do you, what, you know, how would you advise again, a TV producer who's thinking over the next two, three years and focusing their business around Spotify and around podcasting? [00:27:00] What, what would you advise them to think about? 

I just think do it. If anything, I think people spend too much time kind of thinking about things.

I think if you've got access to talent and you've got access to exciting ideas or IP that you can potentially reverse and then just go for it, you know, the, the barrier to entry now is so much lower than it was even two years ago. Yeah. And you as TV producers, you've got access to people who understand the space and you've got access to people with great talents.

You've got access to people who know how to make something look good, and you've got access to people who understand the pacing of visual content. Yeah. Um, and I think when you combine that with people who really understand the digital landscape and who understand the kind of power of podcasting, that kind of intimacy and routine we talk about, you know, you can have a lot of success there.

And, you know, for me that's really exciting. I mean, the podcast industry, you know, we're still building a [00:28:00] plane in flight, essentially. Yeah. And, that's what gets me up in the morning and that's why, you know, I'm so excited to be part of Spotify and be part of what we're doing and, you know, particularly that no regret strategy we have.

You know, how can you make content that our audience wants to watch and makes 'em feel good? 

Yeah. So now it's time for Story of the Week Rowan, uh, regular format point on the show. What's your story of the week? 

So it's been a bank holiday. So it's been a slightly slower news week of unusual.

But, uh, one thing which caught my eye this week was the announcement of a new company called Roseberry Studios. They are new to the market and they're made up of various people who've worked in TV and digital industries globally, and they are focused on what they call the verticalization of TV content.

And they announced this week that they've done a bunch of pretty chunky deals with people like all three Media and Banerjee and various [00:29:00] others to take their libraries and to essentially rever 'em into vertical video. So I think this is two things is really interesting. Firstly, for anyone who is doubting the power of vertical video, you know, this is the format which is really coming age, and I know you and met Telecast community have been talking about loads.

I've really enjoyed, uh, Matt Campion talking about it on the show a couple of weeks ago. And it's quite clear that, that the vertical video is, is gonna become a really key kind of content deliverable for studios. And secondly, I just think it's interesting 'cause it shows traditional companies really thinking about other revenue streams, right?

Mm-hmm. So why wouldn't you reversion your content where you've already got into vertical format of it's wherever the audience are? 

Yeah, I mean, it, it, I saw that and I thought it was really interesting for two, two points. I mean, first of all, kind of flies in the face of the way that micro drama has [00:30:00] become successful up to this point because it's obviously shot and developed and created for vertical as opposed to reversioning old content, some of which will work, you know, just 'cause of camera angles and everything.

Some, some which won't. But I thought the other, you know, the other interesting aspect is, you know, there's not really much of a sustainable revenue model that's that certainly in the UK for producing vertical video just yet. And it still seems so young, so I thought that was really interesting.

Maybe it is just a, a catalogue reversioning play. 

I guess it's also about attention, right? I mean, there was a fantastic piece in the Atlantic a couple of weeks ago about the rise of clips as a form of entertainment themselves. And obviously everyone who's worked in digital over the years has talked over the last 10 to 15 years has talked about Clipse as being in a way of content discovery.

And like me, has probably been ended up in countless [00:31:00] different experiments with how to do Clipse in different formats. Yeah. But it's quite clear now that that Clipse have become their own, their own source of entertainment because of a way platforms are built. So I don't think it's any surprise that people are coming to a space and looking to, to reversion because it's about attention.

And I don't know if, if people are watching short form vertical clips of Bridgeton, hopefully that will make them go and explore the catalogue. 

Yeah. No interesting. And who, how about your hero of the week? 

This was really easy because yesterday they announced that Saturday Night Live UK was gonna be recommissioned for Yes.

Uh, a second season. I, I, which, yeah. Okay. I'm gonna, I'm gonna hold, hold my piece for a second. 

Um, so my hero is, is Phil Ed Edgar Jones at the team at Sky for, you know, really. Taking a big, and, you know, frankly, quite expensive risk on, on new talent, uh, albeit in a very successful existing format and for making a success.

And it's [00:32:00] been a real, has it 

been a success though? Viewing figures are, you know, have really settled to around about a hundred thousand on, on, on the, on traditional network play out. But I know socially it's done very well. 

Yeah. And I think really if you look at the kind of profile of people like Jack Shep and Annie Magliano and George Four Acres, you know, this, you know what they've done is really helped bring the next generation of British talent through.

And I think that has to be applauded. And, in the world that we operate in, we, we talk all the time about on demand content and flexibility, but sometimes when you watch something live, you can't, you know, you can't beat that excitement and energy. And certainly, I, I loved watching Amy Lee Wood being escorted round by a four law manager from one sketch to another last week.

Yeah. The only thing I'd ask is could you put it on at 9:00 PM rather than 10, because I keep drifting off just after weekend update. 

Okay. All right. Saturday Night Live been uh, [00:33:00] recommissioned for another 12, did you say? I 

think, yeah. Another 12 episodes in the Autumn, which I think, you know, it's an exciting time for them.

And finally, Ronan, who or what are you telling to get in the bin? 

Oh, dear. Well, you know, I think we, we are recording this the day after the local election, so it would be, there are some obvious names. It's very tempting to say, but sticking in the kind of media, I, I don't have anyone massively to put in the bin, but I did raise eyebrows at the Guardian's article over the weekend that the big BBC cuts for incoming would be focused on news and they were gonna take the brunt of them.

So I think 15 rather than 10%. Yeah. Now, I think everyone who, who watches your show has got an opinion on the BBC. They've probably all worked for them, but I think, certainly in my personal view, one of the great crown jewels is b BBC News. And in an age of, disinformation and division, I think it's one of the kind of things we should be most proud of.

Absolutely. I do. That's, that 

should maybe be the focus to preserve as [00:34:00] opposed to Exactly.

You know, I I, I, I would, I would definitely encourage some of the managers there making those decisions and putting that story out to perhaps go to their nearest waste disposal unit. 

Yeah. And look at some other areas to, uh, to trim perhaps.

Exactly. Rowan, thank you so much. Thanks for coming on the show. Much great to great to have you on, and, uh, good luck with everything at Spotify. Brilliant. Of course. We'll be watching everything that you guys are doing, and, uh, thanks for coming on the show. Thanks 

you so much for having 

me. Well, that's about it for another week's show.

I hope you enjoyed it. Telecast is produced by Spirit Studios and recorded in London. We'll be back next week with another show.