Everything is becoming TV, from the Substacks you read to the radio you listen to

Substack launched its Connected TV app as an Australian radio network looks to "TV"

Newsletter publishing platform Substack, which is currently the platform of choice for Always Be Watching, has this week pushed further into video with its first connected TV app.

There’s a lot of chatter going around today about how newsletter writers are frustrated that it signals that Substack is getting further away from being about the words, man. Anyone frustrated by that needs to look up from their Substack editing page because that’s the direction everything is headed in. And yes, ABW is thinking very hard about what it plans to do in this space soon…

At launch, there’s a couple of wrinkles that need to be sorted out. This is what the app looks like on the TV at ABW HQ:

You can see that the hero video at the top has an issue with the way text is presented over the featured image created by a Substack user. That needs some work.

The other issue is that you have two types of Substack user posting. There’s people posting video with the Substack mobile app in mind who are, obviously enough, posting vertical video:

Here’s David Poland from this morning talking about the ridiculous 5:30am early morning Oscars nomination announcement today.

Looks fine in the mobile app, but funny on connected TV and desktop.

But then you have larger outfits which likely employ a digital producer who has the time and resources to publish video across multiple platforms. These guys are producing video with YouTube and possibly Spotify in mind too.

Here’s Sarah Longwell from The Bulwark talking about legal news earlier this week (I’m not sure why it is tagged as 2027 on the metadata… Longwell needs to talk to her digital producer about that).

The video is full-screen and looks better.

Now, users like Poland have a choice to make… produce in landscape, which may be a worse user experience for Substack mobile app users, or keep doing what he’s doing. The reality being that it seems unlikely that the Substack app will take off considering so many of its video creators are also publishing to YouTube, so Poland is probably best off continuing to publish portrait to the Substack app.

Meanwhile, I’m wondering if a connected TV app really is the best play for Substack at this stage. I’d instead be thinking more about curating themed FAST channels and seeking distribution on platforms like Samsung TV+, Pluto TV, Tubi, etc.

Substack Sports. Substack Business. Substack Film & TV. Substack Politics (erm, maybe not that one…).

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Speaking of pivots to video…

An interesting observation today from Mr Brisbane himself, Brett Debritz. He’s talking about a shift at local Brisbane talk station 4BC (Brisbane’s Nine Radio talk station) where recently they shut off the live video cameras they have had in-studio. Brett’s theory being that it is a “consequence of the station untangling itself from the parent company’s IT ecosystem” ahead of an expected sale of the Nine Radio network

The live video has been shut off on all the Nine Radio sites. It prompted this article at Radioinfo with Jen Seyderhelm arguing against video in studios:

But, live talk radio is a totally different beast, and the No 1 rating hosts in Australia like Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft, Ben Fordham and Mark Levy, deserve to not have to concern themselves with how they look and appear on top of the significant pressures that come from a news-centric program run in real time.

A clear issue for the future of the radio industry is enticing people to the highly regulated talk format when they can simply start a podcast and say what they like. But, if you’ve ever been a guest, in the studio, of an ABC, commercial or a community radio talk program, you will know the thrill and adrenaline of being part of that live experience.

For those of you who have worked in talk radio, you’ll also be aware of how much happens, quietly, behind the scenes while someone, be it the host or a phoner or guest, is talking.

The hand gestures, messaging between producer and host, mouthed signals.

To me, this reads a lot like a Substack writer frustrated that there’s a push to video underway. Talk radio might be exciting to make, but audiences are still pivoting to podcasts and YouTubers (which are also exiting to make, Jen).

It seems like there are moves afoot to do something more video focused at Nine Radio. The video feeds may be turned off, but when you visit the former video feeds, you’re seeing this at 4BC:

And this at 2GB in Sydney:

I’ve written about it before in Always Be Watching, but I do think there are incredible opportunities to bring talk radio content to live video (which is why I feel it may be a mistake for Nine to sell off the radio assets), delivered via FAST channels and other digital touch-points.

It would mean radio studio layouts may need to change to become more video-friendly, with new presentation skills required of hosts. But there are already so many talk video podcasts where presenters utilise this exact evolved skillset that it shouldn’t present that much of an issue.

Here’s Matt Deegan doing a great job hosting The Media Club podcast that presents well on both audio and video.

And here’s NBC’s Yasmin Vossoughian hosting Here’s The Scoop during an NBC election livestream a few months ago:

Give a host and radio station the right infrastructure and reap the multichannel rewards.

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The Steal article I am keen to read right now

I wasn’t expecting much at all from new Prime Video series Steal, starring Game of Thrones’ (and upcoming Tomb Raider) Sophie Turner. But, it’s a surprisingly good crime thriller about a UK pension investment firm at the centre of what may be Britain’s largest value heist.

But… I’m also four seasons into Industry, HBO’s UK-set investment firm drama, where there is far more cocaine and high-stress on display. It also seems like the Industry trade desk has a lot more on the line minute-by-minute than the Steal desk does.

What I’m looking for is the article that goes into the differences between the types of investments being made in Industry vs what a pension fund is involved with. Why is that not on Vulture yet?

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Today in Paramount and Netflix’s bid for Warner Bros Discovery news…

• Paramount has extended its deadline to woo shareholders to Feb 20. The previous deadline had expired on Wednesday. Read: CNBC

• Warner Bros Discovery reports that 93% of shareholders rejected the Paramount bid. Read: CNBC

Well worth a read today is that second CNBC story, which goes into some detail about the real challenge for a Netflix acquisition of Warner Bros will be in getting it past European regulators.

WBD feels confident its Netflix deal will win EU approval, according to people familiar with the matter. A WBD source said there was a “95% certainty” that Europe would approve the transaction, though the person did acknowledge Netflix may need to agree to certain conditions, such as agreeing to produce a certain amount of local content in Europe and promising to release movies into theaters. The EU’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive already mandates that video-on-demand streaming services ensure at least 30% of programming in EU countries qualify as European works.

Paramount disagrees and believes a Netflix deal has very little chance of making it past European regulators, according to people familiar with the matter. At the same time, it’s working its own EU regulatory angles for its proposed takeover.

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News Desk

• New Hulu series The Beauty will have a companion video podcast also available on Hulu/Disney+ and on YouTube. Audio will be available on all the usual podcast platforms. Read: thefutoncritic

• CBS has renewed 10 shows for its 2026/27 season: Tracker, Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, Matlock, Elsbeth, Fire Country, NCIS, NCIS: Origins, NCIS: Sydney, Survivor, and The Amazing Race. Already ordered are Boston Blue, Sheriff Country, FBI, and Ghosts. New shows will include Cupertino and Einstein. This leaves Watson and DMV on the bubble… I’d be happy to see both moved on. Read: thefutoncritic

• RIP Emmy award winner Bruce Bilson who died at the age of 97. He directed episodes of Get Smart, The Andy Griffith Show, Hogan’s Heroes, Alias Smith & Jones, Dallas, Barney Miller, Dinosaurs, and hundreds more hours of TV. Worth noting is that his son is TV & film writer Danny Bilson who co-created shows including The Flash (1990), Viper, and The Sentinel. Bruce Bilson directed episodes of each of them. Meanwhile, Danny’s daughter (and thus, Bruce’s grandaughter) is Rachel Bilson (still best known for The OC). Read: THR

• With 6.7 million cross-platform US viewers, Warner Bros Discovery says A Knight of The Seven Kingdoms, its latest Game of Thrones show, is a top three all-time HBO Max launch. Read: Deadline

• Paramount+ reports a global viewership of 14.8 million for the season two finale of Landman in its first two days. Read: The Streamable

• Ethan Hawke says that season 2 of The Lowdown is going into production in March. Good news because that show is great. Read: Deadline

• Ms Rachel has been busted liking an explicitly antisemitic comment on Instagram. She says it was a mistake and that she’s not good at touching things online. Read: THR

• Shoresy has been renewed for season 6. Read: Deadline

• Online startup Telly, which was giving away free televisions that had a second smaller screen displaying advertising, only delivered 35,000 sets despite promises of shipping half a million. Read: The Verge

Trailer Park

There’s a new movie adaptation of Masters of The Universe. And somehow it makes the 1987 one look pretty good.

Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord debuts April 6 on Disney+. History has shown that more screen time for Star Wars’ coolest characters is often a bad thing.

Invincible is back for season 4 on Prime Video March 18.

The Oscar-snubbed and audience-snubbed and critics-snubbed Ella McCay debuts Feb 5 on Hulu. Eh, Lisa and Marge liked it.

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That’s the newsletter for the today.

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