Inside Podcasting’s Fight Over Netflix, YouTube, and Creator Control

Chris Balfe is the CEO of Red Seat Ventures, the company behind some of the biggest names in podcasting, including Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, Bill O’Reilly, and, more recently, Kill Tony. Since we last spoke, Red Seat has been acquired by Fox, making it one of the company’s biggest bets on the creator economy. So I asked him what that actually means—for Fox, for creators, and for the podcast business itself. We talk about why Netflix is offering huge checks to podcasters, and why Chris thinks many creators should think twice before taking the money. We discuss YouTube’s rise, why he thinks “podcast” is becoming an outdated term, and why video—not audio—is now driving much of the industry’s growth. We also get into one of his biggest concerns: the clipping economy. Chris argues that podcast creators and media companies have spent years giving their best content to TikTok, Instagram, and other platforms for little or no compensation—and that the economics of short-form video increasingly benefit the platforms, not the people making the shows. And, of course, we talk about Fox: what has (and hasn’t) changed since it bought Red Seat, why Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly stayed after the acquisition, and how Fox sees creators fitting into its future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices