Comcast is splitting in three, Fox just bought Roku for $22 billion, and the Paramount-Warner merger still hasn't closed. Welcome to Media Shark Week.

This episode of the Media Odyssey Podcast is Evan Shapiro and Marion Ranchet's deep-dive into the wave of media mergers reshaping the streaming and broadcasting landscape in real time. Recorded in early July, it covers four major deals in rapid succession: the Comcast-NBCUniversal split, the Sky acquisition of ITV, the Fox-Roku deal, and the stalled Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger. Without guests (or filters), Marion and Evan are comparing notes, disagreeing openly, and calling their shots on what each deal actually means for the future of streaming media, cord-cutting, digital advertising, and the balance of power between legacy media and big tech.

The throughline: vertical integration in media has repeatedly failed not because the theory is wrong, but because the execution never happens. Comcast never integrated NBCUniversal just like AT&T never integrated Warner. The companies that are winning (Fox in particular) are the ones building digital content and advertising flywheels while everyone else is digging holes and filling them back up.

Key Takeaways:

1. The Comcast Three-Way Split
Comcast is splitting into three companies: a connectivity/broadband entity, a spun-off NBCUniversal/Sky entertainment group, and the already-separated Versant. One read: this is a prelude to selling NBCUniversal, with Netflix and Apple as the most likely buyers. The combined Charter-Cox-Comcast broadband entity would control 70–75 million US homes, effectively controlling how most Americans access all streaming content.

2. The Sky-ITV Deal
Sky acquired ITV's broadcast network for £1.6 billion, leaving ITV Studios as a standalone content producer through 2032 under an existing supply deal. The combined Sky-ITV package could solve Netflix's ad sales weakness in its two biggest markets (US and UK) in one move. ITV Studios could also be a potential acquisition target for Banijay or others hungry for English-language IP, including Love Island, which had its biggest year in Season 12.

3. Fox Buys Roku for $22 Billion
Roku (once valued at $50 billion) sold to Fox at roughly a third off peak valuation. Evan calls Lachlan Murdoch the sharpest traditional media CEO in the US: Fox sold assets to Disney at the top of the market, invested in Tubi, Red Sea Ventures, Holywater, and Whaler, and now controls roughly 50% of US TV screens through Roku. Combined, Tubi and The Roku Channel are larger than Disney streaming. Marion's concern: Fox is too US-focused, Roku needed an international partner, and merging a tech culture with a programming culture almost never works cleanly.

4. The Paramount-Warner Merger Stall
The Ellisons targeted a July close and it isn’t going to happen. The UK Culture Minister has intervened, and the attorneys general of California, New York, and other states have filed suit to block the merger of CNN and CBS News. The AGs are playing a long game, and there's no realistic path to closing before the US midterms, which was the Ellisons' primary motivation for the deal in the first place.

5. Integration Is the Only Thing That Matters
Every failed deal in this episode (AT&T-Warner, Comcast-NBCUniversal, WBD) failed for the same reason: the companies never actually integrated. Comcast didn't even unify its ad sales departments across NBCUniversal. The Fox-Roku deal has real upside, but only if Fox does the hard work. The pot of gold at the end of the M&A rainbow is real, but only for the companies willing to integrate.

Interested in sponsorship? https://forms.gle/2LCWfX2HBNT8mtpx8  

Connect with us on Linkedin:

Evan Shapiro - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eshap-media-cartographer/  

Marion Ranchet - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marionranchet/  

The Media Odyssey Podcast - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-media-odyssey-podcast    

• (00:00) - Welcome and Shark Week

The growing vertical video landscape has potential far beyond microdramas. Two TV veterans just built the studio to take vertical premium all the way with true crime, dating reality formats, scripted drama, and a 12-step AI process to get there.

This episode of the Media Odyssey Podcast with Evan Shapiro and Marion Ranchet features Guy Hameiri and Lior Friedman, co-founders of RoseBerry, a vertical premium television studio built on the belief that mobile is the new cable. Guy comes from 25 years in traditional TV production (Survivor, X Factor, Shtisel on Netflix). Lior comes from Amagi and the commercial side of streaming media. Together they're building a start-to-end studio producing originals, repurposing legacy TV catalogs for vertical, and distributing through their own first-party app, Epis.

The episode covers RoseBerry's full model: deals already signed with Fremantle, Banijay, All3Media, and A&E to repurpose existing catalog IP into vertical short-form; a proprietary 12-step AI-assisted conversion tool called Red Snapper; originals; and EPIS as a test-and-learn platformt. The Neighbors case study (an 18-year-old Fremantle soap reformatted for vertical featuring a young Margot Robbie) is presented live on the pod as proof of concept.

Key Takeaways:

1. Beyond Microdrama
The current vertical market is dominated by melodrama tropes with high churn and low retention. RoseBerry is betting on genre expansion including true crime, dating reality, soap, and scripted, to target an underserved audience. Paywall conversion on top-performing shows is already exceeding 50%, with 70% of those converting to subscribers.

2. Red Snapper
RoseBerry's proprietary 12-step AI-assisted conversion tool takes horizontal long-form TV and reformats it for vertical. It handles frame cropping, pacing, graphics, storyline focus, and music rights. The process started manually with human editors to establish craft standards, then was automated at scale. It's the core IP that makes repurposing 5,000-episode catalogs commercially viable.

3. Epis as a Data Engine
Their app Epis exists primarily as a first-party data platform, not just a distribution channel. It lets RoseBerry track user-level behavior across genres, sessions, and geographies. Subscribers on EPIS are now spending over an hour per session on top-performing content.

4. The Library Opportunity
Guy's "10,000 for 10,000" framework is if a rights holder monetizes 10,000 hours of catalog content at $10,000 per hour per year, that's $100 million in new annual revenue from IP that is otherwise sitting dormant. RoseBerry's pitch to Fremantle, Banijay, All3Media, and A&E is a new monetization window for libraries that traditional streaming cannot fully exploit.

5. Mobile as the New Cable
Guy's biggest claim: mobile will replace what cable was with movies, series, true crime, and reality available on-demand in vertical format. Netflix, Disney, Peacock, and Paramount are all launching vertical feeds, creating a coming demand for premium vertical content that RoseBerry is positioning to supply.

Thank you Lior Friedman and Guy Hameiri for joining the pod!

Thank you Lior Friedman and Guy Hameiri for joining the pod!

Lior Frieman -https://www.linkedin.com/in/lior-friedman-94958939/ 

Guy Hameiri - https://www.linkedin.com/in/guy-hameiri-/ 

Interested in sponsorship? https://forms.gle/2LCWfX2HBNT8mtpx8  

Connect with us on Linkedin:

Evan Shapiro - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eshap-media-cartographer/  

Marion Ranchet - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marionranchet/  

The Media Odyssey Podcast - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-media-odyssey-podcast    

• (00:00) - Heatwave and Setup

Two nearly century-old brands. One brand-new animated series. And a first-of-its-kind partnership that's never been done before.

This special episode of the Media Odyssey Podcast was recorded on the Croisette at Cannes Lions, hosted inside BBC Studios' headquarters, and features three guests across two breaking news announcements. Jasmine Dawson, SVP of Digital at BBC Studios, returns for what's become an annual tradition on the pod to unveil the Affinity advertising network. Affinity is a five-vertical, fandom-first ad sales operation expanding globally with a major push into the US. 

Dan McGolpin, Director of iPlayer and Channels at BBC, joins to announce a new internal BBC Group partnership that will see BBC Studios' digital sales team represent public service BBC YouTube channels outside the UK for the first time. 

And Anna Rafferty, SVP Digital Consumer Engagement at the LEGO Group, joins to break the news of a first-of-its-kind Bluey x LEGO co-commissioned content series dropping on YouTube the same day the episode publishes.

The throughline across all three conversations is the same: fandom, trust, and the growing conviction that reaching audiences isn't enough,  you have to move them.

Key Takeaways:

1. Affinity's Five Verticals
BBC Studios has launched Affinity, a fandom-first advertising network built across five verticals: Family (anchored by Bluey), Auto (Top Gear), Travel & Food, Entertainment, and Our World (anchored by BBC Earth, built over 10 years across IP including Blue Planet and Big Cats). Each vertical is built around existing trusted BBC IP, with third-party studio IP (Magic Light Pictures' Zog, Acamar's Bing) layered in to deepen the offering. 

2. The BBC Group YouTube Expansion
BBC Studios and BBC Public Service are launching 50+ new YouTube channels in 2025, roughly half through BBC Studios, half through public service. Dan McGolpin describes a strategic shift from treating YouTube as a marketing tool to actively building communities, particularly for under-25s in the UK. The approach mirrors what BBC Studios has learned about channel specificity: rather than one BBC Sport account, they've spun off a dedicated BBC Football channel, with more sport-specific channels to follow. 

3. The Internal BBC Partnership
The first piece of breaking news: BBC Studios' Affinity team will now sell advertising outside the UK for selected public service BBC YouTube channels. This will be the first time the two arms of BBC Group have formally unified their commercial digital strategy. Previously BBC Studios' digital ad operation focused exclusively on BBC Studios content. This expansion means the Affinity network now spans both the commercial and public service sides of the BBC, giving advertisers access to the full depth of the BBC content portfolio on YouTube worldwide.

4. The Bluey x LEGO Co-Commission
The second piece of breaking news: a 10-part content series with LEGO brick recreations of fan-favourite Bluey moments, co-commissioned by BBC Studios and the LEGO Group, dropping on YouTube. Anna Rafferty describes it as an editorial co-commission, not just a product partnership: the series was built around the insight that children love to "play their stories," creating a watch-play-build loop designed to deepen engagement across both the Blueyverse and the LEGO universe simultaneously.

5. The Fandom Measurement Model
BBC Studios' core KPI is average watch time. Bluey averages nearly 15 minutes of watch time per session, against a portfolio average of 13.3 minutes, both significantly above industry benchmarks. 77% of BBC Studios' viewing happens on CTV — meaning the majority of Bluey and Top Gear consumption is happening on the living room television, with high co-viewing rates that make it especially valuable to advertisers. 

Thank you Jasmine Dawson, Dan McGolpin, and Anna Rafferty for joining the pod!

Jasmine Dawson - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasminesdawson/

Dan McGolpin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-mcgolpin-093268123/ 

Anna Rafferty - https://www.linkedin.com/in/annarafferty/ 

Interested in sponsorship? https://forms.gle/2LCWfX2HBNT8mtpx8 

Connect with us on Linkedin:

Evan Shapiro - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eshap-media-cartographer/ 

Marion Ranchet - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marionranchet/ 

The Media Odyssey Podcast - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-media-odyssey-podcast 

• (00:00) - Cannes Lions Kickoff

Demand for high-quality kids' content has never been higher, but the supply has never been more broken. And YouTube, the most powerful kids' platform on Earth, is running it like an algorithm, not a network.

This live panel episode of the Media Odyssey Podcast, recorded at the Media Universe Summit, features Evan Shapiro and Jamie Shapiro alongside Andy Donner, Head of Partnerships at Common Sense Media, and Sara DeWitt, Senior Vice President & General Manager at PBS Kids. The conversation centers on Evan and Common Sense Media's joint report on the state of the kids' content industry. 

The picture it paints is stark with millennial and Gen Z parents demanding more high-quality, trusted kids' content than ever, while streaming platforms have cut series orders by 25%, public media is being defunded, and YouTube Kids remains under-monetized and under-curated despite being the most-watched kids' platform in the world. The panel covers co-viewing trends, the collapse of the independent kids' production ecosystem, the rise of AI slop in children's content feeds, and what it would actually take for a major streamer or YouTube to step up and fill the gap.

Key Takeaways:

1. Supply vs. Demand
 Demand for quality kids' content has doubled among parents (70% of whom are now millennials or Gen Z) while the number of series orders from streamers has dropped 25% from its 2022 peak. Streamers figured out kids' content reduces churn but doesn't drive new subscribers, and largely stopped commissioning it. Public broadcasters like PBS, BBC, and ABC Australia now produce 54% of kids' content worldwide.

2. The YouTube Kids Problem
 88% of parents of kids under seven say their children prefer YouTube over any other platform, yet kids' content represents 15% of total YouTube usage and just 2% of its monetization. YouTube Kids has the lowest co-viewing rate of any major platform and AI-generated slop is regularly making it through content filters. The American Academy of Pediatrics warns YouTube is actively harming children's development.

3. The Algorithm Gap
 COPPA enforcement removed an estimated $2 billion from the kids' content marketplace, primarily from YouTube. Streamers that stopped commissioning original kids' content are now inadvertently driving young viewers to YouTube. PBS Kids saw 40% YouTube growth simply by launching content globally and allowing international ads, because global distribution signals demand to the algorithm and lifts domestic reach.

4. Co-Viewing Is Back and Underserved
 Co-viewing has surged since COVID, with the desire to watch content together as a family now ranking as the top thing parents say they don't want to lose from the pandemic period. Research shows kids learn significantly more when a parent or sibling is present. But fragmented subscriptions, too few family-friendly titles, and algorithm-driven autoplay leave a commercial gap for any platform willing to program for the whole family.

5. YouTube Needs to Run Kids Like a Network
 The panel's clearest call to action: YouTube should treat YouTube Kids as a curated network, not an algorithm. That means human curation, better revenue sharing for kids' content creators, global distribution partnerships, and taking its developmental responsibility seriously. YouTube would make more money doing it, and the goodwill from parents and educators would be commercially valuable in its own right.

Thank you Andy Donner and Sara DeWitt for joining the pod!

Andy Donner - https://www.linkedin.com/in/andydonner/ 

Sara DeWitt - https://www.linkedin.com/in/saradewitt/

Interested in sponsorship? https://forms.gle/2LCWfX2HBNT8mtpx8 

Connect with us on Linkedin:

Evan Shapiro - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eshap-media-cartographer/ 

Marion Ranchet - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marionranchet/ 

The Media Odyssey Podcast - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-media-odyssey-podcast 

• (00:00) - Introduction to Kids' Content Landscape

59% of people now watch video on their phone first. If your content strategy doesn't account for that, Evan Shapiro has a message for you: you're already losing.

This keynote episode of the Media Odyssey Podcast features Evan Shapiro's live Stream TV Europe presentation. It is a fast, data-driven breakdown of where streaming media, social media, YouTube, and TikTok are headed next. Built on original research from MX8 Labs and Evan's new Cross-Screen Attention Index, the talk argues the media industry is now entirely consumer-driven, and most legacy companies haven't caught up. 

Through real-world case studies (Duolingo, Kit Kat, PBS, RuPaul's Drag Race, Toonstar) Evan makes the case for what he calls the "affinity economy": brands and creators win by building loyalty and fandom, not chasing scale.

Key Takeaways:

1. Phone-First Is the Default
 59% of consumers age 13+ say their phone is their primary video device — nearly 2x television. For Gen Z, the bathroom ranks third among top video-watching locations.

2. YouTube Leads, But Faces Pressure
YouTube ranks #1 in total attention per Evan's new Cross-Screen Index, but Meta overtakes it when Instagram and Facebook are combined. TikTok ranks #2 among under-55s and is bigger than Netflix, Paramount, NBCU, and Warner Bros. Discovery combined.

3. Retention Reveals a Loyalty Gap
 The average premium streamer has 11% retention, gaining 175 million subscribers last year while losing 156 million. WOW Presents Plus, home to RuPaul's Drag Race has a smaller subscription base, but maintains just 4% churn.

4. Fan Engagement Drives Real ROI
 Coach's UGC campaign drove a 142% rise in company value. Duolingo's mascot stunt drove its first billion-dollar year. PBS's Frontline now averages tens of millions of YouTube views, with donations up 61%. 

5. Vertical Video Is a White Space
 Disney, Netflix, and Paramount are all launching vertical feeds. Evan argues most vertical content is low-quality leaving room for premium creators willing to treat it as real programming, not marketing.

Interested in sponsorship? https://forms.gle/2LCWfX2HBNT8mtpx8 

Connect with us on Linkedin:

Evan Shapiro - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eshap-media-cartographer/ 

Marion Ranchet - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marionranchet/ 

The Media Odyssey Podcast - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-media-odyssey-podcast 

• (00:00) - Scaling Business Without Overhead

Valerie Bertinelli has been a content creator since she was 12 years old. She just stopped asking permission to make the shows she wants.

This episode of the Media Odyssey Podcast features special guest co-host Valerie Bertinelli — television icon, actress, author, and Food Network — alongside Billy Cooper, CEO and co-founder of Visible Things, the direct-to-consumer platform infrastructure company behind Valerie's brand new streaming destination, Valerie's Place. 

The episode is equal parts media business case study and candid personal conversation. Billy walks through how Visible Things works as a white-label platform technology that gives legacy talent and creators their own streaming home that Patreon, Substack, and YouTube simply can't replicate. Valerie brings the human side of it: why she got tired of being held hostage by the algorithm on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, what it actually feels like to have a real social relationship with fans versus a parasocial one, and how Valerie's Place has already produced moments of genuine connection that no brand deal or Food Network season ever could. 

The conversation closes with a broader and surprisingly frank debate on why the economics of legacy television and streaming media are broken — and why Valerie thinks algorithmic fragmentation isn't the real culprit: it's wealth concentration at the very top of the entertainment industry.

Key Takeaways:

1. Own Your Audience
YouTube and social media platforms are top-of-funnel marketing tools, not businesses. Billy's core thesis: when you post on YouTube, the platform's job is to get your audience to watch something else next. Visible Things is built on the opposite logic with a branded destination where the talent owns the subscriber relationship, the email list, and the content IP outright, with no algorithm standing between them and their audience.

2. The 1% Math
Valerie has 5 million combined social followers. The Visible Things model targets 1% of that, the 50,000 super fans, paying an average of $7 a month. That's $350,000 a month, or roughly $4 million a year, generated entirely through direct subscription with zero ad revenue, zero network dependency, and zero creative compromise. The platform launched March 1st and built 300,000 followers across social and 50,000 email subscribers within its first six weeks, all organically.

3. Legacy IP as a Launch Asset
One of the first moves Visible Things made was licensing back all 172 episodes of Valerie's Home Cooking from Warner Bros. Discovery, content that had effectively disappeared from public availability after the merger. Bringing a beloved, canceled show back to a direct platform isn't just a fan service move; it's an immediate, concrete value proposition.

4. Real Social vs. Parasocial
Valerie draws a sharp distinction between parasocial relationships and real social ones where the wall comes down and the connection becomes genuinely mutual. Valerie's Place book club is the clearest example: live Zoom-style sessions where members talk about their own lives, not just Valerie's, and where a fan sending a feather necklace after hearing Valerie mention losing one on a podcast becomes a meaningful moment of human connection.

5. The Economics Are Broken at the Top, Not the Bottom
Valerie notes she hasn't matched her per-episode earnings from the last two seasons of One Day at a Time (which ended in 1983) in any project since, including a 14-season Food Network run. Her diagnosis: the problem isn't fragmentation of channels, it's concentration of money at the very top of the industry, with too few people controlling too much of the revenue that content creators actually generate. The direct-to-consumer model isn't just a creative choice, it's the first time creatives have a genuine shot at keeping what they earn.

Thank you Valerie Bertinelli and Billy Cooper for joining the pod!

Valerie’s Place - https://valeriesplace.com/ 

https://www.instagram.com/itsvaleriesplace/ 

Billy Cooper - https://www.linkedin.com/in/wbcoop/ 

Visible Things - https://visible-things.com/ 

Interested in sponsorship? https://forms.gle/2LCWfX2HBNT8mtpx8 

Connect with us on Linkedin:

Evan Shapiro - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eshap-media-cartographer/ 

Marion Ranchet - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marionranchet/ 

The Media Odyssey Podcast - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-media-odyssey-podcast 

• (00:00) - Valerie Joins the Pod

1.7 million subscribers. A Global deal. Live Bundesliga rights. And a studio in Brooklyn for the World Cup. The Overlap built it all without owning a single match.

This episode of the Media Odyssey Podcast features Scott Melvin, CEO of The Overlap, the multi-award winning sports channel, for the beginning of the 2026 World Cup. What started as a side hustle for a Sky Sports pundit itching to do long-form conversation has grown into one of the most-watched football content businesses in the UK, now backed by media company Global and expanding its creator network on YouTube and social media.

Scott walks through how The Overlap was built from the cold-open, unscripted format of Stick to Football, to the decision to own the conversation around football rather than chase expensive live rights. He breaks down the platform's growth strategy including the acquisition of Mark Goldbridge's Man United channel (2.2 million subscribers) and That's Football (1.3 million) to shortcut years of audience-building, and the Bundesliga deal that proved social clips outperform live streams by roughly 20x in reach.

The conversation also zooms out into the bigger structural questions around the World Cup and sports media more broadly: is permanently eating into live viewing, whether rights fragmentation is pushing fans toward highlights, and if the 2026 tournament can permanently shift America's relationship with the sport the rest of the world calls football.

Key Takeaways

1. Own the Conversation

Live rights for F1 cost Sky $200 million a year while Netflix paid $10–20 million for Drive to Survive and became the defining F1 content brand for a generation. The Overlap applied the same logic to football: if you can't own the rights, own the conversation around them. For any creator or media company priced out of live sports rights, shoulder content is the viable entry point.

2. Clips Beat Live

During The Overlap's Bundesliga partnership, social clips of live games outperformed the streams themselves by approximately 20x in total reach. Live attendance figures remain strong, but viewing full matches is declining as fragmented rights force fans across multiple paid subscriptions. The World Cup's expanded format will test that tipping point at unprecedented scale.

3. Acquire Audiences, Don't Build From Scratch

It took The Overlap 4.5 years to reach 1.7 million YouTube subscribers. Mark Goldbridge spent 10 years building his channel to 2.2 million. Rather than launch a Man United channel from zero, The Overlap partnered with Goldbridge and acquired his existing audience — effectively skipping 5–7 years of organic growth. 

4. Platform Age Beats Talent Age

The Overlap's core panel averages 50 years old, yet its biggest demographic is 18–34. Scott's explanation: YouTube is a young platform, and the platform itself attracts younger audiences — the talent keeps them there. 

5. The Post-World Cup Moment

The 1994 US World Cup triggered a brief soccer boom that faded within months. Scott and Evan both see 2026 as structurally different because the internet has made the world smaller, Gen Z and Gen A are more globally oriented, and the Women's World Cup in Brazil follows a year later. Whether the tournament converts casual viewers into long-term fans of MLS and the Premier League will be a closely watched audience metric in sports media over the next 18 months.

Thank you Scott Melvin for joining the pod!

Scott Melvin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-melvin-331071a7/ 

The Overlap - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-overlap/ 

Interested in sponsorship? https://forms.gle/2LCWfX2HBNT8mtpx8 

Connect with us on Linkedin:

Evan Shapiro - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eshap-media-cartographer/ 

Marion Ranchet - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marionranchet/ 

The Media Odyssey Podcast - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-media-odyssey-podcast 

• (00:00) - World Cup Fever in NYC

Full Disclosure meets Media Odyssey in this crossover episode of The Media Odyssey podcast with Roben Farzad, host of Full Disclosure on NPR and former Wall Street reporter for BusinessWeek and Bloomberg.

The episode covers a wide sweep of interconnected stories: the proposed Paramount-Warner merger, the editorial independence implications of foreign money in US media, the GameStop-eBay bid as a case study in social media-driven market manipulation, and the state of M&A activity across the Atlantic.

From Roben's firsthand perspective on the lack of US media coverage of Iran and the effect of Gulf sovereign wealth funds acquiring stakes in major news organizations to a forensic breakdown of the Skydance-Paramount deal, Evan Shapiro, Marion Ranchet, and Roben Farzad discuss the 60 Minutes settlement, the Colbert cancellation, the Bari Weiss hiring, and the White House's reported role in pushing the merger through before a potential political shift in the fall. They close with a frank debate on the future of professional journalism and whether public media, billionaire backstops, or direct-to-consumer Substacks can fill the gap left by a collapsing legacy news industry.

Key Takeaways

1. Foreign Money in US News 

Roughly 50% of the Skydance-Paramount acquisition is being funded by foreign interests, including Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds. Roben notes that editorial independence becomes structurally compromised the moment a controlling financier has geopolitical interests that conflict with the newsroom's reporting mandate.

2. The M&A Math Doesn't Add Up 

Global M&A deal volume in media dropped 30% year over year, while total deal value rose 10%. This means fewer but larger bets. Warner Brothers Discovery was valued at roughly $60 billion at merger and shed close to 70% of that value before recovering, driven almost entirely by the Zaslav-engineered auction rather than operational performance. 

3. Social Media as Market Manipulation 

GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen publicly floated a bid for eBay, a company worth roughly 5x GameStop's market cap, with no serious financing behind it. The move drove GameStop's stock up and forced eBay to respond publicly. Roben frames this as a direct extension of the meme stock playbook: social media reach, combined with extreme wealth, can now move markets in ways that previously required regulated financial instruments.

4. The Merger Approval Odds 

Roben puts the probability of the Paramount-Warner merger getting approved at approximately 65%, driven primarily by White House pressure to push it through before a potential political shift after the fall election. Marion is skeptical that EU regulators will independently block it if the US approves, noting that European authorities are increasingly prioritizing survival of local media players over strict competition concerns.

5. The Journalism Funding Problem 

The New York Times has reached a $12 billion market cap by building a subscription-driven lifestyle and news bundle. NPR, by contrast, has failed to become a digital native, still relies heavily on pledge drives targeting Boomers and late Gen Xers, and has lost significant talent to for-profit outlets. There is a small but growing tier of independent journalists going direct to consumer as the most promising emerging model, though it leaves out readers who can't afford paid subscriptions.

Thank you Roben Farzad for joining the pod!

Roben Farzad - https://www.linkedin.com/in/robenfarzad/ 

Full Disclosure Podcast - https://www.npr.org/podcasts/1062190100/full-disclosure 

Interested in sponsorship? https://forms.gle/2LCWfX2HBNT8mtpx8 

Connect with us on Linkedin:

Evan Shapiro - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eshap-media-cartographer/ 

Marion Ranchet - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marionranchet/ 

The Media Odyssey Podcast - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-media-odyssey-podcast 

• (00:00) - Crossover Introductions

Eight episodes, $25,000, 2 million views. One indie creator just proved you don't need a studio, a streamer, or a greenlight to break into the fastest-growing format in streaming media.

This bonus episode of the Media Odyssey Podcast features Eli Shell, founder of Sidewise Studios and creator of In-House, a vertical comedy series he wrote, funded, and launched entirely on his own. The vertical video market is almost entirely dominated by high-melodrama romantic drama and Eli saw that as a gap, not a template. In-House is a workplace comedy shot in vertical format, built on a minimum viable product mindset borrowed from his years in the Bay Area tech world: shoot a pilot season, put it in front of an audience on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts, read the signals, and scale from there. 

The episode also zooms out into the broader state of the independent vertical production market from TikTok's emerging role as a serious funder to Peacock's first microdrama slate announcement, and the question of whether Netflix, Disney, and the major streamers will start acquiring independent vertical IP. Eli's answer: we're at the very beginning, the economics are still being figured out, and the creators willing to bet on themselves right now are the ones who'll be best positioned when the market matures.

Key Takeaways:

1. Expand the Genre

The vertical video market today is almost entirely romantic drama which means every other genre is a wide-open opportunity. Eli's workplace comedy In-House attracted talent willing to work at reduced rates specifically because it wasn't another melodrama. For creators and producers looking to enter the vertical space, the least crowded lane is everything that isn't a romance.

2. Minimum Viable Season

Eli spent $25,000 across eight episodes, roughly $3,000 per episode, and treated it explicitly as a minimum viable product, not a finished show. The goal was audience signals, not perfection.

3. Bet on Distribution Diversification

In-House launched simultaneously on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts and its 2 million views are an aggregate across all three. In a format this early, no single platform has won, and the audiences don't fully overlap. Multi-platform distribution is the only way to build meaningful reach without a marketing budget.

4. Watch TikTok

TikTok is the sleeping giant in the vertical video and microdrama space. If they decide to fund and distribute vertical series at scale — as the early investment in Issa Rae's Screen Time (80 million views) suggests they might — the existing microdrama apps like ReelShort and DramaBox face a serious existential threat. 

5. The Acquisition Window Is Opening

Peacock, Netflix, Disney, and Paramount are all starting to test vertical content, mostly as a discovery tool for now, but the direction of travel is clear. Independent producers who have built proven IP with real audience data are going to be the most attractive acquisition targets when the major streamers decide they want original vertical content at scale. 

Thank you Eli Shell for joining the pod!

Eli Shell - https://www.linkedin.com/in/elishell/ 

Sidewise Studios - https://www.linkedin.com/company/sidewise-studios/ 

In-House Show - https://elishell.com/projects/in-house/ 

Interested in sponsorship? https://forms.gle/2LCWfX2HBNT8mtpx8 

Connect with us on Linkedin:

Evan Shapiro - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eshap-media-cartographer/ 

Marion Ranchet - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marionranchet/ 

The Media Odyssey Podcast - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-media-odyssey-podcast

• (00:00) - Meeting in the DMs

10 billion views. 200+ episodes. A Random House deal and a streamer announcement incoming. Toonstar built it all without asking anyone's permission.

Welcome to this episode of The Media Odyssey Podcast with hosts Marion Ranchet and Evan Shapiro featuring John Attanasio and Luisa Huang, co-founders of Toonstar, a next-generation animation studio built from the ground up to produce kids' and family content at the speed of the internet. Veterans of the Warner Bros. who got an early front-row seat to the rise of YouTube and the creator economy, John and Luisa are tacking a simple but radical question: building an animation studio designed for digital-first streaming media distribution.

The episode walks through how Toonstar works from their proprietary AI animation tech Ink and Pixel to their audience intelligence platform Spot, which translates real-time viewing data into storytelling decisions. Together, the two tools form what they call an "agile production loop" that lets them move from greenlight to first episode in 90 days. The centerpiece case study is Steven and Parker, a show born from a creator with a Snapchat filter and 9 million TikTok followers, now sitting at 10 billion lifetime views across five languages, with a Random House graphic novel deal and a streamer announcement imminent. 

Key Takeaways:

1. Greenlight Yourself 

The traditional development cycle doesn't just cost money,  it holds your time hostage. Toonstar's model eliminates the waiting game: pilot on existing creator audiences, read the signals, and go. Find the smallest viable version of your idea, put it in front of an audience, and start there.

2. Production Meets Performance 

Most animation studios can't iterate because production and performance data live in separate worlds. Toonstar's agile production loop directly tethers the two with real-time audience signals that inform weekly creative decisions about episode length, character arcs, and cadence.

3. Creator IP as the New Development Pipeline 

The franchise IP of tomorrow isn't sitting in a writer's room — it's already in front of an audience on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. Parker James had 9 million followers and a character that existed only as a Snapchat filter before Toonstar turned it into a 10-billion-view animated franchise. 

4. AI as Throughput, Not Replacement 

Toonstar's AI system accelerates every production function without replacing the human creative voice. Writers, visual direction, and character vision remain entirely human. The lesson: build AI tooling around your creative people, not around your budget.

5. The Content Flywheel 

YouTube ad revenue and brand sponsorships are the starting point, not the business model. Toonstar's real play is using digital-first distribution to build proven IP that extends into books, merchandise, and streaming deals. YouTube channels should be treated as an IP incubator, not just a distribution platform.

Thank you John Attanasio and Luisa Huang for joining the pod!

John Attanasio - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnattanasio/

Luisa Huang - https://www.linkedin.com/in/luisahuang/ 

Toonstar - https://www.linkedin.com/company/toonstarhq/posts/?feedView=all 

Interested in sponsorship? https://forms.gle/2LCWfX2HBNT8mtpx8 

Connect with us on Linkedin:

Evan Shapiro - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eshap-media-cartographer/ 

Marion Ranchet - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marionranchet/ 

The Media Odyssey Podcast - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-media-odyssey-podcast 

• (00:00) - Fail Fast Mindset