TellyCast: The content industry podcast

Justin Crosby
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TellyCast is the leading podcast exploring the future of television, YouTube, the creator economy and digital-first production. Hosted by Justin Crosby, each episode features conversations with the people shaping the future of content. 🎧 New episodes every week.

  1. 3d ago ·  Video

    Simon Willgoss, Nutopia: why A-list talent wants equity, not a fee

    Nutopia has spent two decades making premium factual with A-list talent for broadcasters and streamers. Its new digital-first studio, Youtopia, works differently. It partners with that same talent on shows made directly for YouTube, sharing creative control and a commercial stake rather than paying a fee for a role in someone else’s show. Chief Creative Officer Simon Willgoss joins Justin Crosby to explain why that offer landed faster than Nutopia expected. In a post-peak-streaming market the commissioning bar is so high that most of what big-name talent genuinely cares about will never get funded, and those stars increasingly want ownership. Youtopia’s answer is to build returnable formats around proven YouTube demand, publish at volume, then licence second or non-exclusive windows to broadcasters afterwards. 00:00 Why Nutopia launched Youtopia  01:50 Clickbait Clinic: a BBC One series with a YouTube sibling  03:55 The BBC funded the digital series too  06:20 Inside the talent deals  08:00 Why A-list talent said yes  11:20 From passion projects to IP businesses  12:30 Brands arrived earlier than expected  14:50 Trevor Noah, Jeff Goldblum and Tom Daley  16:00 Second windows and non-exclusive licensing  17:40 Does this cut the distributor out?  20:40 Will the two divisions compete?  21:40 Tom Hanks, 40 million viewers, and the limits of digital  24:10 Advice for mid-size indies still on the fence  25:30 A platform shift, not an existential threat  30:50 The demand for long-form specialist factual  32:20 Story of the week: Bela Bajaria and Ben Frow  35:50 Where displaced TV execs should be looking  37:30 Hero of the week  39:50 Get in the bin Sign up for The Drop newsletter Enrol on the TellyCast Digital Bootcamp Buy tickets for the Digital Content Forum Subscribe to the TellyCast YouTube channel for exclusive TV industry videos Follow us on LinkedIn Connect with Justin on LinkedIN TellyCast videos on YouTube TellyCast website TellyCast insta TellyCast Twitter TellyCast TikTok

    Simon Willgoss, Nutopia: why A-list talent wants equity, not a fee

  2. Oct 29 ·  Video

    From Countdown to YouTube: Rachel Riley’s Digital-First Leap

    Rachel Riley has spent 18 years on Countdown. Now she is fronting The Maths of Everything, a weekly YouTube series and podcast made with Little Dot Studios, the team behind some of the platform’s biggest science and history channels. In this episode of TellyCast, Rachel explains why maths has been missing from a YouTube factual market that already rewards physics and history, and why Little Dot thinks there is a large audience waiting for it. The format is built to be discovered: topics like sharks, Halloween, space travel and supermarket queues pull viewers in, and the maths does the rest. She also sets out how a YouTube-native show differs from television. A TV commission depends on a pilot and a fixed series order. A 52-episode-a-year YouTube show is shaped week to week by audience data, retention and what unexpectedly takes off. Rachel calls it “the Moneyball of making YouTube shows.” Sign up for The Drop newsletter Enrol on the TellyCast Digital Bootcamp Buy tickets for the Digital Content Forum Subscribe to the TellyCast YouTube channel for exclusive TV industry videos Follow us on LinkedIn Connect with Justin on LinkedIN TellyCast videos on YouTube TellyCast website TellyCast insta TellyCast Twitter TellyCast TikTok

    From Countdown to YouTube: Rachel Riley’s Digital-First Leap

  3. Oct 22

    MIPCOM 2026 Part 2: Creator Hollywood and the YouTube-First Studio, with Made By Us Studios and Underknown

    In the second part of our MIPCOM 2026 special, Justin Crosby talks to two studio leaders who come to the creator economy from opposite directions. Tanya Cohen spent her career representing film stars and directors at WME and Range Media Partners. In April she left that business to become co-CEO of Made By Us Studios, the LA studio she runs with creator-economy pioneer Leanne Perice. She explains why she made the move, how Dentsu came to back the studio’s slate, and why she thinks advertisers are returning to the old model of underwriting content.  Steve Hulford is founder and CEO of Toronto’s Underknown, which is marking its tenth anniversary. Its channels include What If, How to Survive, Aperture and Animal Logic, with 22 million YouTube subscribers between them. Steve explains why the studio’s creators are full-time staff, and what it was like to lose half its revenue overnight when Facebook shut down Watch pages. He describes the timing that kept What If off Discovery and National Geographic, and why YouTube is now the first stop.  In this episode: Creator Hollywood: putting legacy resources behind creator-led IPWhy brand-funded content is coming backCreator ownership, live events and the IP flywheelHow creator deals put pressure on the SVOD modelPlatform risk and spreading revenue across many sourcesAI-assisted ideation, dubbing and generative VFX in a working studioThe Digital Content Forum takes place in London on 5 November. Entries for the Digital Video Awards open the same day. Sign up for The Drop newsletter Enrol on the TellyCast Digital Bootcamp Buy tickets for the Digital Content Forum Subscribe to the TellyCast YouTube channel for exclusive TV industry videos Follow us on LinkedIn Connect with Justin on LinkedIN TellyCast videos on YouTube TellyCast website TellyCast insta TellyCast Twitter TellyCast TikTok

    MIPCOM 2026 Part 2: Creator Hollywood and the YouTube-First Studio, with Made By Us Studios and Underknown

  4. Oct 15

    MIPCOM 2026 Special Part 1: Steven Moffat, Sue Vertue, After Party Studios, Dentsu and Sister

    In the first of two TellyCast specials recorded in Cannes at MIPCOM 2026, Justin Crosby talks to the producers, studio founders and agency leaders working out where scripted, social video and brand-funded content meet. Steven Moffat and Sue Vertue of Hartswood Films open the show with Number 10, their new Channel 4 comedy drama set behind the most famous door in Britain. They explain why Downing Street works as a workplace drama, why authentically British shows travel best internationally, and why Moffat sees micro drama as a real creative challenge. As he puts it, there is nothing special about the hour-long episode, which only came from the technology of the time. They also answer the inevitable Sherlock question. Josh, Ben and Jamie from After Party Studios talk about life after the Sister acquisition. They discuss bringing the craft of Gangs of London and Black Doves to young audiences at social speed, the case for 15-minute episodic series on YouTube, the growth of their sports division, and what the Red Bull and Disney+ Max Verstappen vs 100 project shows about live, creator-led brand activations. Kathy Boxall, Head of Entertainment at Dentsu, explains the agency’s title sponsorship of MIPCOM’s new BrandWorks strand and its 55-episode micro drama for P&G’s Native, which it describes as the first brand-funded full-length micro drama in the US. She shares Dentsu’s Gen Z research showing long viewing sessions on micro dramas, and makes the case for shoppable social video as the missing link between entertainment and proven sales. Lucinda Hicks, Group CEO of Sister, closes the episode with the thinking behind the After Party deal, Sister’s minority investment in Common Interest Group, and the new Amol Rajan venture. She explains why the group is cautious about piling into micro drama, why it sees vertical scripted content more broadly, and why the next 12 months are about making the whole worth more than its parts. Sign up for The Drop newsletter Enrol on the TellyCast Digital Bootcamp Buy tickets for the Digital Content Forum Subscribe to the TellyCast YouTube channel for exclusive TV industry videos Follow us on LinkedIn Connect with Justin on LinkedIN TellyCast videos on YouTube TellyCast website TellyCast insta TellyCast Twitter TellyCast TikTok

  5. Oct 8 ·  Video

    Why Brands Are the New TV Commissioners, with Studio Fawkes CEO Lucy Smith

    Lucy Smith left TV development two and a half years ago to launch Fawkes Digital. The company has just rebranded as Studio Fawkes. It has landed its first linear commission, with street-dating format Date Me Right Now heading to MTV. And Lucy says revenues have tripled in the last six months. In this episode she explains why Studio Fawkes treats brands as broadcasters rather than "a money pot", and why she believes the old-school TV model is "totally dead and wildly unsustainable". She describes how a L'Oréal-sponsored podcast with creator Paige Lewin led to a haircare line that sold out almost instantly, with a 50/50 split on format and merchandise sales. She also explains why every Studio Fawkes idea starts with a long-tail commercial goal. Sign up for The Drop newsletter Enrol on the TellyCast Digital Bootcamp Buy tickets for the Digital Content Forum Subscribe to the TellyCast YouTube channel for exclusive TV industry videos Follow us on LinkedIn Connect with Justin on LinkedIN TellyCast videos on YouTube TellyCast website TellyCast insta TellyCast Twitter TellyCast TikTok

    Why Brands Are the New TV Commissioners, with Studio Fawkes CEO Lucy Smith

  6. Oct 1 ·  Video

    Have UK Indies Lost Their Nerve?

    Rob Rawlings spent 25 years in premium factual TV before co-founding Full Slate Media, a production studio and boutique agency working with creators, brands and digital publishers across YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. His recent LinkedIn post asked whether UK indies have lost their nerve, and he joins Justin Crosby to make the case. They discuss why the old commission-and-sell model is shrinking year on year, why so much post-Edinburgh talk about YouTube has not turned into investment, and how indies can use development budgets, existing shoots and in-house editors to build audiences and IP of their own. Rob also explains why creators now refer to TV as "legacy media", and why trained TV storytellers are better placed than most to succeed on YouTube. Sign up for The Drop newsletter Enrol on the TellyCast Digital Bootcamp Buy tickets for the Digital Content Forum Subscribe to the TellyCast YouTube channel for exclusive TV industry videos Follow us on LinkedIn Connect with Justin on LinkedIN TellyCast videos on YouTube TellyCast website TellyCast insta TellyCast Twitter TellyCast TikTok

    Have UK Indies Lost Their Nerve?

  7. Sep 25 ·  Video

    How to Go Viral With YouTube Strategist Seb Losardo

    Our interview with former Top Gear boss Andy Wilman has passed 200,000 views on YouTube and around 400,000 elsewhere. Justin Crosby asks YouTube strategist Seb Losardo, who has helped grow John Nellis's channel from 600,000 to 16 million subscribers, to explain why, and how to repeat it. Seb explains how to find outlier guests, why an AI-generated thumbnail beat our usual design in an A/B test, and why he tells creators not to be led by their most vocal fans. He sets out his 40/30/30 rule for dividing effort between packaging, the intro and the rest of the video, an approach that turns traditional TV workflow on its head. The conversation also covers why preamble costs viewers, how gaps between sections cause audiences to drop off, how YouTube editing differs from TV, and why brands spending heavily on talent still end up with videos nobody watches. Seb will be speaking at the Digital Content Forum on 5 November at BFI Southbank. TellyCast is produced by Spirit Studios and recorded in London. Sign up for The Drop newsletter Enrol on the TellyCast Digital Bootcamp Buy tickets for the Digital Content Forum Subscribe to the TellyCast YouTube channel for exclusive TV industry videos Follow us on LinkedIn Connect with Justin on LinkedIN TellyCast videos on YouTube TellyCast website TellyCast insta TellyCast Twitter TellyCast TikTok

    How to Go Viral With YouTube Strategist Seb Losardo

  8. Sep 18

    The Sidemen's guide to creating superstar formats

    Victor Bengtsson runs production at Sidemen Entertainment. In this episode, recorded at the TellyCast Digital Content Forum 2025, he explains how the company built Inside, a Big Brother-style format developed with no TV experience and no format experts in the room, and turned it into a Netflix number one. Victor takes us through Sidemen's Core Missions structure, the single-sentence pitch rule that governs every idea, and the decision to test Inside on a second YouTube channel before committing serious money. He explains why the company deliberately avoids hiring format specialists at the ideation stage, how a 30-day pre-production sprint led to 55 million views in ten days, and what happened when Netflix came calling. The conversation also covers the tension between YouTube instinct and traditional TV development, and why Victor believes reintroducing fun to the commissioning process is the industry's biggest missed opportunity. This is a candid look at how a digital-first creator business out-developed the TV industry at its own game. Sign up for The Drop newsletter Enrol on the TellyCast Digital Bootcamp Buy tickets for the Digital Content Forum Subscribe to the TellyCast YouTube channel for exclusive TV industry videos Follow us on LinkedIn Connect with Justin on LinkedIN TellyCast videos on YouTube TellyCast website TellyCast insta TellyCast Twitter TellyCast TikTok

    The Sidemen's guide to creating superstar formats
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TellyCast is the leading podcast exploring the future of television, YouTube, the creator economy and digital-first production. Hosted by Justin Crosby, each episode features conversations with the people shaping the future of content. 🎧 New episodes every week.

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