Video Podcasts Are the New Late Night
Interview shows like Amy Poehler’s “Good Hang” are taking the place of traditional TV.
Phillip Maciak
Unofficial Partner
Latest Posts
'Influencers are the private equity of culture'
The ScrollInfluencers are the private equity of culture: draining whatever’s “cool” until higher prices and worse experiences push out the original fan base. Then they move on to the next thing, leaving the original to die as fans lose interest or the ability to participate. https://t.co/KtKXPX6HbZ
— Mason (@brxxklynbxby__) September 4, 2026
🧵The Infinite Scroll
The Scroll
Where we keep track of the sport's relationship with the digital platforms. Use the hashtag #TheScroll
Read Me First
Sport and Digital Platforms: The Infinite Scroll
Core dynamic: Digital platforms have fundamentally altered how sport content is consumed, using infinite scroll mechanisms to transform sports from appointment viewing to continuous engagement streams.
Platform imperatives:
- Attention capture: Sports content serves as high-engagement "sticky" content that keeps users scrolling
- Algorithm optimisation: Live sports moments, highlights, and reactions generate predictable engagement spikes that platforms prioritize
- Data harvesting: Sports consumption provides rich behavioral data for targeted advertising and content recommendation
- Real-time monetisation: Live sporting events create premium advertising inventory and subscription conversion opportunities
Content atomisation:
- Highlight culture: Complete matches fragmented into shareable moments optimized for social feeds
- Micro-narratives: Complex sporting stories reduced to digestible, scroll-friendly content units
- Reaction economy: User-generated responses, predictions, and commentary become content themselves
- Cross-pollination: Sports content mixed with entertainment, news, and lifestyle content in unified feeds
Behavioral transformation:
- Passive consumption: Shift from intentional sports viewing to algorithmic content discovery
- Shortened attention spans: Traditional long-form sports viewing competes with rapid-fire content consumption
- FOMO amplification: Constant stream of sports updates creates anxiety about missing moments
- Parasocial relationships: Platforms facilitate deeper emotional connections with athletes through direct access
Industry tensions:
- Rights fragmentation: Traditional broadcasters compete with platform-native sports content
- Revenue redistribution: Platform economics favor engagement over viewing completion
- Authentic vs. performative: Athletes balance genuine expression with algorithmic optimization
Strategic implications: Sports organisations must navigate between preserving traditional viewing experiences and adapting to platform-native consumption patterns that prioritise infinite engagement over finite events.
>>Out of category
>>Thought leadership in 2026
There's a bot that creates Linkedin posts from prompts, because of course there is. (HT Richard Ayers for the link)
FIFA meets the public
FIFA>From those wonderful people who bought you the European Super League
>Gianni Memes
Paddy Power doing their thing
Carlsberg's contribution was so good that I assumed it was AI. The wait for verification felt like a bit like the VAR pause.
29-07-2026
>Picking winners
The LTA has got in to bed with Redrice Ventures.
#venturecapital #sportinvesting #startups #sportsbusiness | Tom March | 76 comments
I’m proud to announce our partnership with the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), a significant milestone for the Redrice Ventures Sports Collective, led by Sir Andy Murray and Alistair Brownlee OBE. Together, we’ll explore new opportunities across sport, media and technology to help grow the game, support players, and create even better experiences for fans. Consumer behaviour is changing, with an increasing share of time and spend moving towards health, wellness and sport. We believe these categories represent some of the most compelling long-term opportunities, driven by shifts in technology and lifestyles. By bringing together the LTA’s sporting expertise with the Redrice Sports Collective’s team of athletes, operators and investors, we have a unique opportunity to help accelerate the LTA’s mission and unlock new possibilities for the future of the game. A huge thank you to William Jackson, Scott Lloyd and Jennifer Ren at the LTA for your support. We couldn’t be more excited to be working together. Onwards team: Jonathan, Robert, Giles, Andrew, Gabbie, Claudia and Helen #venturecapital #sportinvesting #startups #sportsbusiness | 76 comments on LinkedIn
Tom March
Redrice is best known as an early stage investor in Castore.
It's OPM seems to come largely from the British Business Bank.
British Business Bank commits £45M to Redrice Ventures’ £75M fund II
The capital will be used to fund early-stage consumer brands, help them scale, and attract further investment.
Joy Laoun
>Too big to care
Lina Khan's phrase, mentioned by Doctorow on Jon Stewart.
@weeklyshowpodcast Is there hope for breaking up giant monopolies? Cory Doctorow, author of “The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI,” thinks we’re well positioned to take on these companies. New podcast out now!
♬ original sound - The Weekly Show Podcast
>'Very large shoes to fill'
Lovely piece by John Simpson, the outgoing home affairs editor of The Observer. It's about his relationship with journalism and is a raw and impactful bit of writing. Contains a nice WCW reference:
“It is difficult
to get the news from poems
Yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.”
William Carlos Williams
from “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower”
Also, great gag in Private Eye:
28-07-2026
FIFA>The guy’s never said no to anything
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbWfCb0J_9p/?igsh=MWtodWxjbXZyM2tkeQ==
>Good feeling gone
A much used phrase in our house, nicked from Finding Nemo.
Anyhow, the PR I praised in last week's newsletter hasn't replied to my email response. A week on from the original podcast pitch, she sent a follow up, asking if I'd seen the original, which felt a lot like an AI-generated follow up, and made me question the original email's provenance. I'll pursue this a stage further as the story is now less about the pitched idea and more about the process of comms and pitching.
>FFE, ffs: What Gianni did next
Lots of names in this new FIFA project:
The FIFA FFE story poses a question. How or where to jump in? Martyn Ziegler broke the story in The Times, I think, at least that was the version of the story shared on WhatsApp.
The next 24-48 hours has been a fire hose of opinions, explainers and what ifs. The second bounce will be an attempt to build the pro-Infantino argument. A sort of 'what's really going on here?' type piece, which dismisses 'Linkedin chatter' and takes the high ground of the obvious expert.
Then what? Cushnan went with the questions arising.
Ricardo Fort with a similar vibe aimed at the FIFA sponsors
>'Not all of them can be the UFC'
George Pyne on CNBC made the comparison that this generation of new sports entertainment properties are the market's equivalent of VC funding. High risk moonshots and most will fail. 'Not all of them can be the UFC'.
