The Scoop
My colleague Liz Hoffman has written that “SpinCo,” the new proprietor of NBC’s cable assets, will be born with a strong balance sheet and a view of itself as “predator, not prey” — a phrase I hear the new company’s CEO Mark Lazarus has taken a liking to. But it won’t be the only contender in a mad scramble that I suspect will make some podcasters very, very rich next year.
Fox Corp. also has a strong balance sheet and a digital acquisition that has turned out extremely well in Tubi, whose CEO, Paul Cheesbrough, is leading the broader group’s digital strategy. Now Fox is talking to potential acquisition targets in political media, particularly on the right.
Some of the companies that might be in play include Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire; Red Seat Ventures, which produces for figures like Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly; the podcast company Audioboom; and the radio-and-podcast giant iHeart. The All-In Podcast also draws quite a bit of attention. But the big Silicon Valley money — Elon Musk’s X is another logical buyer for conservative media — may drive valuations out of range even for Fox.
Some of these acquisitions would require a reorientation for a company that is used to controlling talent with an iron hand. It would also represent a kind of detente between Rupert Murdoch and Google, against which he’s waged a long global war: YouTube is the dominant visual platform for the new era of whatever we’re calling podcasts now. One sign of that detente, a Fox insider notes: YouTube CEO Neal Mohan was invited to address company executives at Fox CEO and executive chair Lachlan Murdoch’s home in November.