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TellyCast: The content industry podcast
A weekly podcast featuring opinionated international content industry business leaders joining Justin Crosby to discuss the week's top industry news stories. In each episode we discuss key business developments around the world and look forward to the big moments in the week ahead. New episode every Thursday.
Episodes
261 episodes
Inside China’s Micro-Drama Boom with Wenwen Han
Justin Crosby speaks to Chinese micro-drama expert Wenwen Han, founder and CEO of the Short Drama Alliance, about how China built the world’s most advanced short-form drama economy. The conversation explores platform ecosystems on...
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Season 11
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Episode 260
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36:40
The Secret Digital Producers
In this anonymous edition of TellyCast, Justin Crosby is joined by two experienced digital-first producers who speak candidly about the realities of building sustainable businesses in social video, YouTube and podcasting in 2026.
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Season 11
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Episode 259
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43:38
Micro Drama, Vertical Storytelling and the New Scripted Economy
Micro drama is one of the fastest-growing scripted formats in global digital video, and UK producers are only just beginning to understand its scale, speed and commercial potential.In this episode of TellyCast, Justin Crosby is ...
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Season 11
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Episode 258
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44:15
Steve Ackerman: The Future of Audio, Video and the New Podcast Economy
This week Justin is joined by Steve Ackerman, one of the UK’s leading audio execs and former EVP and Head of Global Podcasts at Sony Music. Steve talks through three decades of shaping audio, from starting in hospital radio to building Somethin...
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Season 11
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Episode 257
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35:28
The State of Digital-First in 2025 and What Comes Next in 2026
In this special end-of-year episode of TellyCast, Justin Crosby looks back at 2025 and unpacks the structural shifts that have quietly but fundamentally reshaped the digital-first production economy.Drawing on reporting from The Drop, co...
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Season 10
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Episode 256
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21:38
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How Brands Become Broadcasters: Joe Churchill on Branded Entertainment, Creators and the Future of Social Video
In this episode of TellyCast, Justin Crosby is joined by Joe Churchill, former Digital Commissioning Editor for Branded Content at Channel 4 and now co-founder of Fan Club, a digital-first agency built around brands, creators and premium social...
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Season 10
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Episode 255
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40:26
Sam Barcroft: News, Creators and the Big Reset Coming to Media in 2026
Sam Barcroft returns to TellyCast with a major update: he’s now Group CEO of SWNS Media Group, the UK’s largest independent newswire. In this wide-ranging conversation, Sam explains why news, social video and the creator economy are colliding f...
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Season 10
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Episode 254
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57:43
How Digital-First Studios Are Rewriting the Rules | Live from TellyCast Digital Content Forum 2025
Factual isn’t standing still - and this panel proves it. Recorded live at the TellyCast Digital Content Forum, this conversation digs into how the factual genre is being rebuilt for a digital-first world. Lucy Smith hosts a sharp, unsentimental...
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Season 10
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Episode 253
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29:09
Micro Drama: Fad or the Future? | Live from TellyCast Digital Content Forum 2025
Vertical video drama has exploded in the past year – but is it a passing craze or the next big shift in storytelling? Recorded live at the TellyCast Digital Content Forum, this session brings together Spirit Studios’ Matt Campion, T...
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Season 10
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Episode 252
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32:25
Colin Furze, Dose of Society & Eline van der Velden at Web Summit 2025
This week’s TellyCast comes from Lisbon and the 2025 Web Summit, featuring three standout conversations from the frontline of social video. Engineering superstar and YouTube icon Colin Furze joins the show fresh from his packed session to discu...
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Season 10
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Episode 251
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1:18:58
Thom Gulseven on Strong Watch, Channel 4 and the Future of Social Video
Strong Watch Studios co-founder Thom Gulseven joins the show to talk about building one of the UK’s most exciting digital-first production companies. He reveals how lessons learned at LADbible shaped the launch of Strong Watch with Ben Powell-J...
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Season 10
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Episode 250
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49:48
TellyCast at MIPCOM (Part 3) - Warren Brown, Joe Churchill, Luci Sanan, Robbie Lyle & more
In the final TellyCast MIPCOM special from Cannes, we hear from the people shaping the digital-first future of TV. Fan Club’s Joe Churchill talks about brands becoming broadcasters and his upcoming session at the TellyCast Digital Content Forum...
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Season 10
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Episode 249
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49:13
TellyCast at MIPCOM (Part 2) - Cecile Olsen, Matt Campion, Gerrit Kemming, Gary Woolf & more
In part two of our TellyCast MIPCOM special, Justin Crosby dives deep into the creator economy — the fastest-evolving part of the global content industry. Guests include Gerrit Kemming of Quintus Studios, Paul Telner from Viral Nation, Matt Gie...
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Season 10
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Episode 248
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1:18:57
TellyCast at MIPCOM (Part 1) — Jodie Whittaker, Emily Atack, Nella Rose, Holywater, Shaftesbury and more
TellyCast is back in Cannes for Day One of MIPCOM 2025 — bringing you the biggest new shows, the freshest formats, and the digital-first innovators transforming the global content business.Justin Crosby talks to Jodie Whittaker an...
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Season 10
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Episode 247
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1:41:12
Shaun Evans on Betrayal – Inside ITV Studios’ New Spy Thriller
Actor Shaun Evans and executive producer Tom Leggett join Justin Crosby on TellyCast to discuss Betrayal — ITV Studios and Mammoth Screen’s gripping new espionage drama.Best known for Endeavour, Shaun takes on a very di...
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Season 10
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Episode 246
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27:47
Inside ITV Studios’ 2025 Slate with Julie Meldal-Johnsen
This week on TellyCast, Justin Crosby is joined by ITV Studios EVP of Global Content, Julie Meldal-Johnsen, for an exclusive preview of the company’s 2025 MIPCOM slate. From high-stakes thrillers like Frauds and Betrayal, to s...
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Season 10
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Episode 245
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28:58
The Next Wave of Documentaries with Ben Zand and Donata von Perfall
In this week’s TellyCast, Justin Crosby is joined by filmmaker Ben Zand and Documentary Campus CEO Donata von Perfall. Ben discusses the launch of Human, his bold new self-funded YouTube documentary strand that puts storytelling and br...
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Season 10
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Episode 244
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47:54
Kimmel, C4 CEO search, BBC's Reform coverage, Baywatch reboot and is C5 losing it's way?
This week on TellyCast, Justin Crosby is joined by writer, producer and cultural commentator Stephen Arnell. With a career spanning Sky Arts, BritBox, ITV and bylines in The Guardian, The New Statesman and The Spectator, Stephen has seen...
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Season 10
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Episode 243
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49:13
YouTube’s TV Takeover: Ben Woods on Social Video, Streaming Shifts & The New Hollywood
Is YouTube really the new TV? In this week’s TellyCast, Justin Crosby speaks with Ben Woods, Creator Economy Analyst at MIDiA Research, about his new report The New Hollywood: Tactics for YouTube’s TV Takeover. They explore why YouTube...
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Season 10
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Episode 242
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41:35
How Spud Gun Studios Took Mashed Independent and Built a Digital-First Powerhouse
This week on TellyCast, Justin Crosby is joined by Tom Jenkins, Creative Director of Spud Gun Studios, the digital-first indie behind the hugely popular animation channel Mashed. Fresh from taking full ownership of the brand from Chann...
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Season 10
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Episode 241
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46:58
5 Things Every Content Producer Needs To Know About Brand-funded Content
Branded entertainment is booming - but how can producers really work with brands? In this TellyCast episode, Justin Crosby talks to brand funded content specialist Charlie Read, founder of Upstream, about the five things every content producer ...
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Season 10
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Episode 240
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50:26
Dhanny Joshi on Building Big Deal Films and the Future of Social Video
Big Deal Films co-founder Dhanny Joshi joins Justin Crosby to share how he turned a call centre hustle into a BAFTA-winning indie. They discuss breaking through with Dreaming Whilst Black, navigating the commissioning crisis, and why d...
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Season 9
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Episode 239
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50:08
Endangered Species? Ofcom’s Cristina Nicolotti Squires on Saving Public Service Media
This week on TellyCast, Justin Crosby sits down with Ofcom’s Director of Broadcasting and Media, Cristina Nicolotti Squires, for a deep dive into the regulator’s urgent six-point action plan to save public service media in the digital-first era...
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Season 9
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Episode 238
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37:34
Taf Makopa: Creator-Led Formats & The Future of Social Video
This week on TellyCast, Justin Crosby sits down with Taf Makopa, founder of Mako Studios and one of the most exciting new forces in digital production. Taf reveals his first slate of four brand-funded shows with BoohooMan — including <...
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Season 9
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Episode 237
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50:07
How Komi Group’s Andrew Trotman Is Scaling the Creator Economy
This week on TellyCast, Justin Crosby sits down with Andrew Trotman, CEO and founder of Komi Group, to explore how one of the UK’s most forward-thinking creator businesses is reshaping the digital content landscape. From building data-driven so...
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Season 9
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Episode 236
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46:54