State of Streaming Podcast

State of Streaming
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Covering the topics, trends, people, and acquisitions shaping Streaming TV.

  1. Oct 8 ·  Video

    Why RSNs Aren't Dying and How Consolidation Is Saving Local Sports | Nana Kofi Amoh, Creator of Amoh Sports Media

    Have a question? Send us a text! Tim sits down with Nana Kofi Amoh, creator of Amoh Sports Media and AD in activation at Omnicom Media Group, to break down the rapidly shifting business of local sports broadcast rights, app consolidation, and how advertisers should navigate regional sports inventory. Recorded on State of Streaming.  The RSN model isn't dying — it's evolving: Why DAZN, EverPass, and app consolidation are reshaping local rights. Local regional sports networks are shifting away from traditional cable packages toward direct-to-consumer apps and aggregated streaming platforms. Major moves—like DAZN acquiring EverPass to secure commercial bar and restaurant distribution, or channels like Gotham Sports transitioning to DAZN for the 2026–2027 season—highlight a broader push toward centralized sports destinations. Meanwhile, teams in smaller markets (such as St. Louis, Tampa Bay, and Miami) are navigating rights shifts that force fans to rethink how and where they access their favorite games.  0:45 – How app consolidation and DAZN's takeover of commercial venue distribution are reshaping local sports 2:53 – From Sinclair and Spectrum to Omnicom: Nana's path into programmatic media and founding Amoh Sports Media 5:26 – RSN evolution, DAZN's Gotham Sports deal, and the rights dilemma for small-market MLB, NBA, and NHL teams Audience-first over broad targeting: Tapping into non-biased, highly passionate regional fanbases. Live sports offer an environment driven by raw emotion, unscripted outcomes, and authentic regional engagement. Even when a franchise struggles on the field—such as the Pittsburgh Pirates—networks like SportsNet Pittsburgh generate strong ad revenue because local fandom remains deeply committed. Instead of applying broad demographic targeting, smart advertisers focus on where audience interest circles overlap, prioritizing regional nuances, multi-screen viewing habits, and personalities over traditional intellectual property.  7:47 – Why sports advertising provides non-biased engagement and brand safety for advertisers 8:49 – The Pittsburgh Pirates case study: Maintaining strong ad revenue despite fan discontent 9:57 – Moving beyond broad demographics: Prioritizing audience culture, multi-screen habits, and personalities over IP The programmatic measurement dilemma: Balancing immediate conversion with long-tail brand awareness. Evaluating the exact business outcome of a programmatic sports ad is challenging when fans stream games while simultaneously engaging with secondary devices. Exposure during a live broadcast may not drive an immediate transaction—such as buying a vehicle or shopping at Walmart right away—but high-impact live inventory builds lasting top-of-mind brand equity. Media buyers must look past immediate 90-day conversion metrics and adopt a patient, long-term equity mindset when evaluating sports inventory.  11:26 – Casting wide nets vs. specific targeting in programmatic sports buying 14:43 – Building lasting top-of-mind brand equity vs. expecting immediate transactional outcomes 16:10 – The 21-year Ogilvy lesson on auto brand positioning and consumer patience Commercial co-viewing, $1,500 streaming bills, and the rise of niche live sports inventory. With annual sports streaming costs reaching $1,200 to $1,500 for consumers, platform fragmentation is accelerating industry consolidation. DAZN's acquisition of EverPass addresses a critical co-viewing challenge by securing distribution in commercial venues like bars and restaurants, while platforms like Fubo integrate regional college networks and emerging properties like the Team Boxing League. These emerging leagues expand available live ad inventory while offering streaming platforms net-new subscriber segments.  16:53 – DAZN acquiring EverPass Media to control live sports distribution in commercial venues 19:19 – Managing $1,500 annual streaming costs, app fatigue, and network consolidation 20:20 – How emerging leagues (Team Boxing League, ACC/SEC networks on Fubo) expand live ad inventory Connect with Nana Kofi Amoh on LinkedIn · Amoh Sports Media  Thanks to Looper Insights for sponsoring today’s show! Ready to unlock your streaming strategy edge? Head over to mystreamingvalue.com to compare CTV home screens and find out which spaces are worth the most. You’ll even learn exactly why Fox was willing to pay $22 billion for Roku. Stop guessing and start scaling—visit mystreamingvalue.com to get your free insights today!

    Why RSNs Aren't Dying and How Consolidation Is Saving Local Sports | Nana Kofi Amoh, Creator of Amoh Sports Media

  2. Oct 6 ·  Video

    Why US and UK Streaming Models Diverge and How AI Reshapes Global Monetization | Rahul Bhatia & Hemant Soni, Cloud and Media Experts

    Have a question? Send us a text! Tim sits down with cloud and media experts Rahul Bhatia and Hemant Soni for a special panel comparing how cloud architecture, AI, and regulation are shaping the future of streaming television on both sides of the Atlantic. Recorded on State of Streaming.  Commercial engine vs. public core: Why the US is built to monetize while the UK is built to balance. The US streaming model is driven by private capital, aggressive monetization, and high-scale subscription plus ad-supported tiers. In contrast, the UK market is anchored by public service broadcasters like the BBC and ITV, operating under strict regulations and public funding. While US platforms compete heavily on first-party data and sports monetization, the UK balances a commercial ad engine on top of a publicly mandated service core.  2:30 – The UK's public-sector-driven streaming market vs. US private equity funding 3:14 – Built to monetize vs. built to balance: How US and UK incentive structures diverge 4:21 – Why UK streaming operates as a commercial engine on top of a public core Cloud architecture at scale: Designing for massive traffic spikes and regulatory exit strategies. Building streaming infrastructure isn't about average usage—it's about designing for extreme traffic spikes, such as major live sports broadcasts. US giants leverage public cloud and serverless architectures to scale effortlessly without owning physical servers. Meanwhile, UK operators must navigate heavy regulatory requirements like GDPR and mandatory cloud exit strategies, making infrastructure decisions as much about compliance as performance.  5:44 – Designing for live traffic spikes: Why Netflix and Prime Video run on public cloud 6:24 – UK cloud regulations, mandatory exit strategies, and navigating GDPR The AI shift: From backend forecasting and 114-minute AI movies to agentic ad tech. AI is moving rapidly from backend revenue forecasting and scene rendering into interactive ad experiences. On the consumer side, tools like Higgsfield Cinema Studio are generating entire feature-length films like Cully Hill Boys, complete with prompt instructions. On the monetization side, Netflix is leveraging recommendation data across 250 million ad-supported viewers to deploy interactive mid-roll ads, QR codes, and dynamic pause screens.  7:41 – How AI forecasting tools replace spreadsheets to project multi-year growth 9:18 – The Coley Hill Boys case study: Full-length AI-generated filmmaking 12:23 – Netflix's 250M ad-tier milestone and the rise of interactive mid-roll ads 15:12 – Agentic AI in action: AWS Bedrock Agents and live production automation The 3-to-5 year outlook: Agentic campaign operators, privacy-first ads, and the coming storage bill. AI is evolving from a creative tool into an active operator within the advertising ecosystem, capable of placing ads, managing budgets, and optimizing campaigns automatically. In the US, dynamic shopping data is driving hyper-personalized ads, whereas the UK's privacy-first regulations focus AI on content-contextual matching. As streaming catalogs expand, platforms may soon face massive infrastructure costs, making cloud storage the next big fee passed onto consumers.  17:27 – Is Netflix a tech company? Agentic AI and backend database investments 18:50 – Amazon's Dynamic TV Creative and shopping data-driven ad switching 20:44 – Why edge computing and cloud storage could become streaming's next paid fee 22:48 – US vs. UK AI strategy: Ads smarter with user data vs. context and privacy-first consent Connect with Hemant Soni on LinkedIn · Rahul Bhatia on LinkedIn Thanks to Looper Insights for sponsoring today’s show! Ready to unlock your streaming strategy edge? Head over to mystreamingvalue.com to compare CTV home screens and find out which spaces are worth the most. You’ll even learn exactly why Fox was willing to pay $22 billion for Roku. Stop guessing and start scaling—visit mystreamingvalue.com to get your free insights today!

    Why US and UK Streaming Models Diverge and How AI Reshapes Global Monetization | Rahul Bhatia & Hemant Soni, Cloud and Media Experts

  3. Oct 1 ·  Video

    Why Sports Streaming Is Fragmented and How Roku Is Solving Discoverability | Joe Franzetta, Head of Sports at Roku

    Have a question? Send us a text! Tim sits down with Joe Franzetta, Head of Sports at Roku, to map out how Roku is solving sports discoverability, unifying fragmented streaming rights, and turning smart TV home screens into interactive fan hubs. They explore a 21-year-old prediction about interactive TV, how Roku City brings live stadium energy home, and why centralized sports zones are driving real engagement for major leagues.  From 21-year-old soap opera predictions to the front door of modern streaming. Over two decades ago, Joe envisioned a world where television viewers could use their remote control to click on a couch or dress inside a soap opera and purchase it in real time. While technology was ahead of execution back then, streaming television has finally caught up. Today, sports serve as the ideal home for interactive viewer engagement because they command the largest, most captive audiences. To power this experience, Roku operates on two levels: as a platform OS acting as the front door to over 100 million households, and as a service via The Roku Channel offering free, ad-supported content.  0:00 – Looking back at a 21-year-old prediction about soap operas and interactive TV 1:25 – Why live sports are the ultimate home for interactive viewer engagement 2:10 – Roku as a platform OS vs. Roku as a first-party service Bringing Grayson Stadium to Roku City: How the Savannah Bananas built a fan-first destination. To recreate the energy of a live game for fans at home, Roku teamed up with the Savannah Bananas for a unique platform-level integration. They placed a clickable Grayson Stadium right inside the iconic Roku City screensaver. Hitting the remote's "up" button enters viewers into a virtual stadium greeted by founder Jesse Cole, which leads directly into the Banana Ball Zone—a dedicated hub aggregating live games across all distribution partners alongside VOD clips and exclusive content.  4:15 – The Savannah Bananas partnership: taking Broadway-style baseball on the road 5:40 – Placing Grayson Stadium inside Roku City as an interactive, clickable feature 7:10 – Solving fragmentation: How the Banana Ball Zone aggregates live games across all distribution partners Solving rights fragmentation with Roku Sports Zones and fan personalization. As sports rights split across four, five, or six different streaming platforms, viewer friction has reached an all-time high. Roku’s North Star solution is the Sports Zone—a centralized hub on the platform that aggregates live broadcasts by sport, provider, and league (including the NFL, NBA, MLB, WNBA, and NWSL). By combining explicit signals (fans picking their favorite teams) with implicit viewing signals, Roku serves personalized content feeds while leveraging the tribal nature of sports fandom.  8:45 – The North Star thesis: centralizing sports content across fragmented rights holders 10:30 – Building dedicated branded hubs for the NFL, NBA, MLB, WNBA, and NWSL 12:15 – How explicit fan choices and implicit viewing signals power personalization Reimagining RSNs with FAST channels and expanding the playbook globally. Regional sports networks were built for traditional cable, but digital streaming opens up new hybrid models. By offering free game unlocks on FAST outlets like the Roku Sports Channel paired with interactive click-to-subscribe remote prompts, leagues can convert local viewers into paid subscribers. Beyond North America, Roku is taking this sports hub playbook international across Latin America, Europe, and the UK, driving record streaming engagement during global tentpole events like the World Cup.  14:10 – The future of RSNs: hybrid distribution, FAST unlocks, and click-to-subscribe remotes 16:05 – T-commerce, ticket sales, and building digital fan communities around team rivalries 17:35 – International expansion: driving record World Cup streaming engagement across seven global territories Connect with Joe Franzetta on LinkedIn · Roku  Thanks to Looper Insights for sponsoring today’s show! Ready to unlock your streaming strategy edge? Head over to mystreamingvalue.com to compare CTV home screens and find out which spaces are worth the most. You’ll even learn exactly why Fox was willing to pay $22 billion for Roku. Stop guessing and start scaling—visit mystreamingvalue.com to get your free insights today!

    Why Sports Streaming Is Fragmented and How Roku Is Solving Discoverability | Joe Franzetta, Head of Sports at Roku

  4. Sep 29 ·  Video

    Why Platform-Reported Measurement Is Wrong and How to Solve It | Moe Chughtai, Global Vice President at MiQ

    Have a question? Send us a text! Tim Rowe sits down with Moe Chughtai, Global Vice President at MiQ, to untangle the fragmented state of modern television and how advertisers can responsibly measure multi-channel media allocation. The episode dives into the evolution of "Total TV," bridging the gap between walled gardens and the open web, and why true measurement requires looking beyond platform-provided metrics.  The definition of TV is now entirely generational. What constitutes "TV" completely changes depending on who holds the remote. For older generations, it remains the traditional cable box, but for Millennials, it is streaming-first, and for Gen Z, TV means YouTube and social video before anything else. Advertising must follow the consumer, meaning buyers have to operate across multiple ecosystems—often needing at least three different platforms to achieve true CTV scale.  01:27 – How MiQ’s AI tech enables traders to run 45 campaigns a month compared to the agency average of five 02:50 – Why getting CTV scale requires buying across at least three platforms, including walled gardens like Amazon and Google 07:21 – The "Total TV" framework and how younger demographics view short-form social video as primary entertainment Platform-graded measurement is creating massive blind spots. If an advertiser relies solely on a buying platform to measure its own success, the numbers will inevitably overstate performance and claim overlapping conversions. True measurement cannot be graded by the platform selling the media. Advertisers need to elevate their data strategy above individual platforms to identify overlap, measure cross-channel frequency, and spot wasted ad spend across both the open web and streaming investments.  10:30 – How overlaying location data with CTV and social investments helps national brands eliminate local media wastage 13:17 – Why relying on platform-reported performance leads to overcounted conversions and critical business blind spots 13:50 – The shift toward independent measurement partners and digital MMM solutions to track true cross-channel performance Walled gardens are finally lowering their defenses. After years of locking down data in response to privacy regulations and competitive fears, the major walled gardens are starting to open up. Platforms are realizing that to secure ad dollars, they must allow marketers to bring their own data in and take actionable signals out. With clean rooms and integrated measurement providers gaining traction, the binary battle between the open web and walled gardens is turning into a collaborative spectrum.  15:23 – How Google’s Ads Data Hub and Meta’s clean rooms are signaling a shift toward more open data sharing 16:06 – Why YouTube remains the dominant global video player, with 60% of MiQ's YouTube ads running on the big screen 18:23 – Moe's two-year prediction on walled gardens allowing more data in and out to satisfy marketer demand Connect with Moe Chughtai on LinkedIn · MiQ Thanks to Looper Insights for sponsoring today’s show! Ready to unlock your streaming strategy edge? Head over to mystreamingvalue.com to compare CTV home screens and find out which spaces are worth the most. You’ll even learn exactly why Fox was willing to pay $22 billion for Roku. Stop guessing and start scaling—visit mystreamingvalue.com to get your free insights today!

    Why Platform-Reported Measurement Is Wrong and How to Solve It | Moe Chughtai, Global Vice President at MiQ

  5. Sep 24 ·  Video

    Why Live Sports FAST Monetization Is Broken and How to Fix It | Keith Bedford, GM EMEA at Wurl

    Have a question? Send us a text! Tim sits down with Keith Bedford, GM of EMEA at Wurl, to map the infrastructure gaps standing between live sports and FAST monetization — and what Wurl is building to close them. Recorded ahead of Sportel and Mipcom, with a Part Two already locked in. Live sports on FAST went from less than 3% of viewing to an entire content category in 12 months. A year ago, live sports made up less than 3% of all FAST viewing compared to nearly 20% on traditional television. That gap is closing fast — Man City launched a channel going live on match days, UEFA landed on Tubi with highlights and women's Champions League content, the Bundesliga kept a Friday night game for Samsung TV Plus while selling Saturday rights to Sky. The rights model is diversifying. The platforms are filling up. The ad infrastructure hasn't caught up yet. 1:37 – Man City's live match day channel and why it's unprecedented in the UK market2:10 – UEFA on Tubi: highlights, women's Champions League, and what rights they kept4:48 – The Bundesliga case study: Saturday rights to Sky, Friday nights to Samsung TV PlusThe programmatic problem? If nobody knows it's live, nobody bids like it's live. In a programmatic bid stream, a live Champions League match and a three-year-old highlights reel look identical without metadata. The CPM is the same. The opportunity isn't captured. Wurl has spent most of the year building a live event API that pre-sends event IDs, metadata, and timing into the bid stream — essentially a sports TV guide for media buyers and planners that tells the market what's live, when, and what content surrounds it. It's not live yet. But it's close. 7:57 – Why FAST ad monetization is still a mixture of pre-sold sponsorships and programmatic9:30 – Why walled garden OEM data creates fragmentation for advertisers trying to reach across platforms16:23 – Wurl's live event API: pre-sending event IDs and metadata so planners can actually plan against itSomeone still has to press the ad button - what about AI? All this technology and AI, and the best way to insert an ad break into a live sports stream is still a human being pressing a button in real time. Wurl uses AI to model when game breaks should happen, but the final call is manual — because if it's live and the game overruns, an automated system gets it wrong. The investment they've made is in making that human intervention smarter, faster, and more frequent so more ad slots get filled at better rates. 12:50 – What Wurl does: playout, channel distribution, and AdPool across every major platform14:22 – Why live ad insertion still requires a human in the loop15:10 – How Wurl's ad break model creates more inventory and better metadata in the same workflowThe three reasons FAST live sports channels fail: the TV, the home screen, and the cross-marketing. Keith's honest diagnosis of why good content still doesn't find its audience. First: consumers don't know the free channels exist when they buy the TV. Second: if the content isn't on the home screen, it might as well not exist — and getting home screen placement requires an active marketing strategy with the platform. Third: almost nobody is cross-marketing their FAST channel across social, YouTube, and Instagram, which is the only place to find the audiences who aren't already looking. Two tiers exist: brands that understand marketing, and brands that ignore it entirely. There's no middle. 19:39 – Why consumers don't know they have 300 free channels when they buy a new TV20:30 – Why home screen placement requires an active strategy, not just distribution22:01 – Why cross-platform marketing is the missing piece for almost every FAST sports channelConnect with Keith Bedford on LinkedIn · Wurl Thanks to Looper Insights for sponsoring today’s show! Ready to unlock your streaming strategy edge? Head over to mystreamingvalue.com to compare CTV home screens and find out which spaces are worth the most. You’ll even learn exactly why Fox was willing to pay $22 billion for Roku. Stop guessing and start scaling—visit mystreamingvalue.com to get your free insights today!

    Why Live Sports FAST Monetization Is Broken and How to Fix It | Keith Bedford, GM EMEA at Wurl

  6. Sep 22 ·  Video

    Why Direct CTV Buys Used to Be "Dumb" and How They Became Programmatic Winners | David Nyurenberg, SVP Digital at InterMedia Advertising

    Have a question? Send us a text! Tim Rowe sits down with David Nyurenberg, SVP of Digital at InterMedia Advertising, days before the Ad Exchanger Awards Gala at Programmatic I/O — where three of InterMedia's projects landed five finalist nominations. The episode unpacks all three: closing the conversion loop on direct publisher buys, privacy-safe show-level targeting at scale, and what happens to performance when you separate good news from bad news using AI. Direct publisher buys in CTV have been dumb buys. That just changed.  More advertisers buy direct-to-publisher in CTV than the industry realizes — better rates, no middleman fees, upfront commitments, JBP spend requirements. But the tradeoff has always been measurement. Publishers had no visibility into which slices of their inventory were driving conversions, which meant they couldn't optimize. The buy either worked or it didn't — a roll of the dice on CPMs that aren't cheap. InterMedia closed that loop with Tubi, NBCU, and Paramount by placing publisher pixels and feeding conversion data back in real time. All three publisher tactics became the top-performing placements across an entire major buy. 3:09 – Why direct CTV buys have historically been "dumb buys" — and why that matters at scale6:53 – Why DTC and mid-market brands are existential for legacy CTV publishers competing with Meta and Google9:04 – The result: Tubi, NBCU, and Paramount tactics outperformed every other tactic across the entire buyShow-level targeting without knowing the show name. Privacy-safe and scalable.  David has been banging the drum on show-level transparency for years — because you can't optimize toward content that drives performance if you can't identify the content. The first solution used metadata matching: zip code, time of day, channel, and network cross-referenced against an airings table to deduce what show was on and bid accordingly. It worked. It didn't scale. Pier 39's content ID solution hit scale — assigning a unique ID to every show without revealing the title, then tying that ID to conversion data so the algorithm knows what to buy more of. You give up the show name. You get the performance signal. 12:20 – Why show-level transparency is the gap holding CTV back as a true performance channel13:14 – The first approach: metadata matching via zip code, time, channel, and Grayston airings tables15:07 – The Pier 39 solution: random content IDs tied to conversions, scaled through Pontiac IntelligenceGood news outperforms bad news. The data is now in. News is efficient and it converts — older audiences, disposable income, high engagement. But many advertisers still won't buy news on CTV because brand safety enforcement is harder than in display: no keywords, just moving sound and image. Anokey AI's contextual technology solved it by segmenting news into positive and negative sentiment in real time. InterMedia ran a scientific split — positive news versus negative news versus all news bundled together, with deduplicated audiences and a control line. Positive news outperformed both the negative-only line and the everything line on a cost-per-lead basis. Good news is good for your bottom line. 16:52 – Why news performs in CTV — and why most advertisers still won't buy it17:21 – How Anokey AI segments local news by sentiment in real time on CTV19:00 – The result: positive news sentiment outperformed negative news and the control lineConnect with David Nyurenberg on LinkedIn · InterMedia Advertising Thanks to Looper Insights for sponsoring today’s show! Ready to unlock your streaming strategy edge? Head over to mystreamingvalue.com to compare CTV home screens and find out which spaces are worth the most. You’ll even learn exactly why Fox was willing to pay $22 billion for Roku. Stop guessing and start scaling—visit mystreamingvalue.com to get your free insights today!

    Why Direct CTV Buys Used to Be "Dumb" and How They Became Programmatic Winners | David Nyurenberg, SVP Digital at InterMedia Advertising

  7. Sep 17 ·  Video

    Why Traditional TV Keeps Fading and How Video Podcasts Replaced It | Emily Williams, Consumer Expert at MRI-Simmons

    Have a question? Send us a text! 📊 Read the MRI-Simmons Video Podcast Report: mrisimmons.com Tim sits down with Emily Williams, Consumer Expert at MRI-Simmons, for a return visit built around fresh data from their annual podcast study — 10,000 US podcast consumers surveyed, weighted and projected to the total US audience. The topic: why the definition of a podcast is breaking down, why that's actually good news, and what the numbers say about where streaming, podcasting, and creator content are all converging. Only 36% of podcast consumers still define a podcast as audio-only. In 2021, that number was over 60%. The format-first definition of podcasting is collapsing — and Emily's data shows it happening faster than anyone expected. Today 13% of podcast consumers define a podcast as a video program on an app. Another 8% — roughly 7 million active podcast consumers — say they're not even sure how to define a podcast anymore. Emily's read: podcasting isn't losing its identity. It's becoming bigger than the format that originally created it. 1:26 – How MRI-Simmons surveys 10,000 US podcast consumers annually and what the study measures3:00 – How the definition of a podcast has shifted: from audio-first to format-agnostic4:47 – The 8% who actively consume podcasts but can't define what they're consuming96% of podcast consumers still listen to audio. 89% watch video. Video isn't replacing audio — it's adding to it. The winner-versus-loser framing the industry keeps reaching for doesn't match the data. Nearly three-quarters of podcast consumers — 74% — say video is an enhancement to audio, not a replacement. Two-thirds say they prefer to watch video when it's offered. And 53% say that when they're watching a video podcast, they ignore the video and just listen anyway. The availability of video matters more to consumers than the constant visual attention. They want the option. They don't always use it. 9:00 – Why video and audio are complementary formats, not competing ones10:20 – Why 53% of video podcast viewers ignore the video while listening11:30 – The multi-platform consumer: TV at home, audio in the car, clip on Instagram at nightSocial media clips have officially replaced word of mouth as the #1 way people discover podcasts. Up until 2024, the number one podcast discovery mechanism was a friend or colleague recommending a show. Starting in 2024, social media surpassed verbal recommendations. Today 44% of podcast consumers discover shows through social media — ahead of recommendations, app directories, online searches, and advertising. A two-hour episode generates dozens of short clips. Those clips circulate on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. The show finds the consumer before the consumer finds the show. 18:07 – How social media surpassed word of mouth as the #1 podcast discovery channel in 202418:30 – Why video creates the short-clip discovery engine that audio alone never could19:45 – Why consumers discover the clip before they discover the podcast — and why that's lower friction23 million consumers say podcast time is replacing streaming time. Netflix is paying attention. Podcasts are not just another content category for streaming platforms — they are increasingly a competitor for the same hours. 23 million consumers say their podcast time is replacing video streaming. Another 32 million say it's replacing traditional live TV. Nearly 60% of podcast consumers say they find podcasts more engaging than TV. And 70% say they actively seek out other content from publishers once they find a program they like — TV shows, movies, live events, merchandise. That's not passive media consumption. That's fandom. That's why Netflix and YouTube are in a bidding war for creator franchises. 12:54 – Why streaming platforms see podcasts as a competitor for attention, not just a content category13:30 – Why 55% of podcast consumers — about 50 million people — go to YouTube for podcasts16:21 – Why streaming services acquiring podcasts are buying loyal audiences, trusted creators, and communitiesBy 2031, we'll stop asking whether something is a podcast or a TV show. We'll just ask whether it has an audience. Emily's five-year prediction: the podcast-versus-TV distinction disappears. The relevant distinction becomes scripted versus unscripted. The future media landscape will be organized around creators, communities, and interests — not formats. Brands that create belonging and give audiences reasons to return will win. The format will be irrelevant. 21:19 – Emily's 2031 prediction: the end of the podcast-versus-TV conversation21:45 – Why scripted vs. unscripted is the distinction that actually matters to consumers22:10 – Why the future asks "does it have an audience?" not "is it a podcast or a TV show?"📊 Read the MRI-Simmons Podcast Study highlights deck — free: mrisimmons.com Connect with Emily Williams on LinkedIn · MRI-Simmons Thanks to Looper Insights for sponsoring today’s show! Ready to unlock your streaming strategy edge? Head over to mystreamingvalue.com to compare CTV home screens and find out which spaces are worth the most. You’ll even learn exactly why Fox was willing to pay $22 billion for Roku. Stop guessing and start scaling—visit mystreamingvalue.com to get your free insights today!

    Why Traditional TV Keeps Fading and How Video Podcasts Replaced It | Emily Williams, Consumer Expert at MRI-Simmons

  8. Sep 16 ·  Video

    Why Niche Sports Docs Work and How 'Wing Bowl' Was Made for Streaming | Pat Taggart, Documentary Director

    Have a question? Send us a text! Tim sits down with Pat Taggart, filmmaker and founder of Sky Blue Creative, to discuss his new documentary No One Died: The Wing Bowl Story — the 26-year history of Philadelphia's most chaotic winter tradition, and what self-distributing an independent film in today's streaming market actually looks like when the major players come calling with contracts designed to take everything. A radio joke in 1993. 30,000 people in an arena by the end.  Al Morganti threw out a throwaway comment on the air — the Eagles are never going to the Super Bowl, let's have a chicken wing-eating contest instead. Two guys at a folding table in the lobby of a Ritz-Carlton-caliber hotel. Two hundred drunk Philadelphians showed up. The hotel told them never to come back. The next year, 700 people showed up in an ice storm to watch year two at Mike Schmidt's bar on Market Street. It grew from there. 3:01 – How a passing comment on Philadelphia sports talk radio became a 26-year tradition4:15 – Year one: a folding table at a hotel, 200 hooligans, and a horrified management team5:39 – What the Florida Film Festival reviewer called "strangely heartfelt" — and why they were rightFor 364 days a year, the participants were anonymous.  For one day, 30,000 people knew their name.  Landscapers, security guards, plumbers, mailmen. Wing Bowl gave regular people a moment that almost nobody gets — walking into a packed arena with 30,000 people on their feet screaming for them. The community that formed around it was a brotherhood and sisterhood that reunited every year. The chaos on the surface was real. So was everything underneath it. 5:54 – Why Wing Bowl was as much about community as it was about spectacle6:46 – How Pat approached the tonal shift from harmless joke to massive cultural event17:41 – The universal story: the little guy getting their shine, freedom of expression, a runaway trainA truck exploded in the parking lot. A man was attacked by dogs carrying grilled cheese. Someone ate three candles.  The behind-the-scenes stories that didn't make the final cut are as good as the ones that did. Mitch Williams — the relief pitcher famous for giving up the World Series-winning home run to Joe Carter — parked his truck over smoldering tailgate embers and it blew up. A Wing Bowl qualifier was attacked by stray dogs on his walk to the studio because they smelled the grilled cheese in his backpack. One contestant's qualifying stunt was eating actual wax candles. Pat had 40 characters in the film and says he could have made another film with 100 more. 14:59 – The Mitch Williams truck explosion story that didn't make the cut15:30 – The grilled cheese dog attack that almost got a guy disqualified16:10 – The candle eater and the philosophy of finding the best collection of characters possibleTwo of the largest production companies on the planet made offers. Pat walked away from both. During COVID, major streamers were buying documentaries at massive multiples — seven figures for content that wasn't even exceptional, just available. The pendulum has swung hard in the other direction: $300,000 documentaries now selling for $30,000 because filmmakers have no leverage. Two major production companies approached Pat about Wing Bowl. Their contracts would have removed Pat as director, removed the producer, severed all financial and name attachment, and given them full narrative control. Pat said take it out of the contract. They said that's not our intention. He walked. 19:23 – Why the major streamers are now buying $300K documentaries for $30K19:48 – What the production company contracts actually said — and why Pat walked20:30 – The self-distribution decision: aggregator over distributor, creative control over upfront moneySelf-distribution is more expensive upfront. It's also the only way to keep the film you made.  Pat went through an aggregator instead of a traditional distributor to get the film on Prime Video, Apple TV, and YouTube. It cost more out of pocket. But the film that's on those platforms is the film he intended to make, and he's still attached to it by name and financially. His wife's cousin asked if it was on Fandango. It isn't. Discoverability in a world of infinite shelves is the next problem — and it's the same problem every content creator faces. 18:53 – Why Pat passed on Fandango and chose to stay on three major platforms19:11 – The discoverability problem: you have to be in all the stores, on all the shelves20:30 – What self-distribution via aggregator actually costs and what it protectsConnect with Pat Taggart on LinkedIn · pat@skybluecreative.com · wingbowlmovie.com Thanks to Looper Insights for sponsoring today’s show! Ready to unlock your streaming strategy edge? Head over to mystreamingvalue.com to compare CTV home screens and find out which spaces are worth the most. You’ll even learn exactly why Fox was willing to pay $22 billion for Roku. Stop guessing and start scaling—visit mystreamingvalue.com to get your free insights today!

    Why Niche Sports Docs Work and How 'Wing Bowl' Was Made for Streaming | Pat Taggart, Documentary Director
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Covering the topics, trends, people, and acquisitions shaping Streaming TV.

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  • Creator
    State of Streaming
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    51
  • Rating
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