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The Dan Rayburn Podcast
The Dan Rayburn Podcast
Author: Dan Rayburn
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© 2025 The Dan Rayburn Podcast
Description
Curating all the streaming media industry news of the week that matters most, in 30 minutes. Unvarnished, unscripted and providing you with the data and analysis you need, without any hype. The pulse of the streaming media industry.
166 Episodes
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This week, we detail Amazon's confirmation that it has started blocking sideloaded apps on Fire TVs that it deems are being used for piracy, in an effort to restrict users from accessing pirated content. We also discuss ITV's confirmation that it is in talks with Comcast-owned Sky about a potential acquisition of its broadcast business, valuing the company at £1.6 billion. We review the latest financial numbers and subscriber counts from Q3 earnings reported by WBD (HBO Max), Xperi, EchoStar ...
This week, we detail Netflix's plans to offer live, dynamic ad insertion (DAI) for NFL games on Christmas and why this is a significant development for the industry. We also debated their new ad viewing definition and the announcement that ads on Netflix now reach more than 190 million MAUs globally. We break down the latest developments on the YouTube TV and Disney Carriage Dispute and how both companies are being disingenuous with users. For Q3 earnings data, we highlight Fubo's impr...
This week, I detail Netflix's Q3 earnings, its new interactive ads rolling out this quarter, and discuss its current use cases for GenAI. I also cover the upcoming Max price hikes and the latest WBD acquisition rumors, focusing on the numbers that matter most —revenue, debt, and financial metrics. Also discussed is the new NBA season, with the NBA back on NBC for the first time since 2002, Prime as a new addition to the NBA party, and ESPN returning for its 24th straight season. Finally, I de...
This week, we highlight my review of Amazon's new Vega OS-based Fire TV Stick, which claims to offer "remarkably fast app launches,” but when tested against the Fire TV Stick Max, I found there was no difference in speed. We also detail all the news from Apple regarding its deal with F1, Apple's services chief discussing how Apple approaches the live sports business and Apple's new bundle with Peacock. We also dispute Apple's odd claim that Apple TV has better video quality than other broadca...
This week, we highlight all of the comments from Netflix's co-CEO regarding its upcoming release of five Party Games designed for connected TVs. We also detail his remarks on why Netflix doesn't bid for an entire season of NFL games, why Netflix doesn't want to acquire WBD, the impact of their new UI/UX and why trying to copy YouTube is the "dumbest move" a company can make. We also cover some announcements made during Advertising Week NY, with news from NBC, Paramount Skydance, Roku, Snap, T...
This week, we highlight the stocks of WBD, Disney, Roku, Paramount, Apple, Fubo, and others, which have all increased by at least 25% over the past six months, with WBD leading the way at 112%. We detail all the latest news related to Peacock, Max, FOX, Fubo, Disney, Versant, Prime Video, the NBA, and YouTube TV, as well as rumors that Yahoo is in advanced talks to sell AOL to Bending Spoons. Finally, we discuss some tips and tricks for increasing exposure on LinkedIn, including recent best p...
This week, we highlight the balance sheets of WBD, Netflix, and Roku, including their market capitalization, debt, cash, and profit and loss statements, as we examine some of the high-level rumors of mergers in the industry, where no one seems to be considering the financials. We also discuss Disney's DTC price increases and the ridiculous comparisons about Kimmel's monologue viewership numbers between TV and YouTube, as some claim Disney has seen "mass" cancellations. We cover the unc...
This week, I highlight where the hype lies in AI, where there is opportunity, and why an "AI-first native strategy" by vendors is the wrong approach. I also explain the importance of AI use cases that help boost efficiency, versus those that are more disruptive to a given industry and how AI is truly upending the news media industry. I detail the new financial details released by Versant Media Group, Comcast’s spinoff of the majority of its NBCU cable network portfolio and the importance of u...
This week, I cover the viewership stats from YouTube’s exclusive NFL live global stream, breaking down what the numbers really mean, since many in the media misreported them. I discuss the challenges that the NFL, FOX and ESPN say they have in working with Nielsen, who once again, announced it is changing the way it measures viewership, which is absent of impartiality and transparency. I also detail the latest news and rumors involving WBD, the upcoming TNT Sports app, and the news tha...
The OpenMOQ Software Consortium has launched as a new effort among vendors and content owners, focused on advancing MOQ-based technology through open-source software. The consortium is tasked with developing high-performance software that will enable the next generation of media contribution, distribution, and playback. OpenMOQ is a collaborative effort to accelerate development, enhance interoperability and share cost between vendors, distributors and in some cases, even competitors. In this...
This week, I cover the launch of Fox One and ESPN Unlimited, which appeared to go smoothly, with few user issues reported. I detailed the news of the week, including price increases for Apple TV+ and BritBox, the launch of a new $20 bundle from Sling TV, and news from Netflix, YouTube, MLB, Fubo and NBC Sports. Finally, I discuss the expected upcoming layoffs at Paramount and their implications for the industry. Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
Marty Kagan, co-founder and CEO of Hydrolix, joined me for a detailed conversation on the importance of delivering better end-user QoE with real-time telemetry and the challenges that come with CDN observability. Marty highlights why more hot data is crucial for AIOps and challenges that M&E customers face today, including the need to discard data due to storage costs. Marty presents a compelling argument against the notion that most data is irrelevant and that content owners only need to...
This week, we detail Paramount Global's seven-year deal with TKO for the rights to stream UFC fights, the impact on ESPN+ and UFC's approach to move away from PPV to expand its audience. We also discussed the new Disney and Fox bundle launching on October 2nd, which combines ESPN+ and Fox One for a discounted rate. Additionally, we list out why not all pay TV customers will have access to ESPN's new DTC service for free when it launches on August 21st. We covered Netflix's pricing increase in...
This week, we detail all the news from Disney's earnings, its proposed deal between ESPN and the NFL and the launch of ESPN's new DTC service this month. We also discuss the impact of Disney's decision to no longer report paid subscribers or ARPU numbers for Disney+ and Hulu, and will cease reporting ESPN+ numbers as of next month. We also discuss all the essential numbers from Q2 earnings for WBD, Paramount Global, Fubo, Altice, Akamai, Fastly, Vimeo, and highlight the upcoming launch o...
This week, I outline the key numbers you should know regarding subscriber gains and losses, as well as the profitability of D2C businesses for Peacock, Roku, Paramount, Sling TV, and Fubo. I also cover the revenue growth from cloud providers Amazon and Microsoft, and break out the capex spend of Meta and the hyper-scalers, totaling more than $250 billion this year, driven by AI-related infrastructure. Finally, I highlight some news relating to Prime Video, Netflix, YouTube, Instagram and DAZN...
This week, we highlight the details surrounding the MLS commissioner's disclosure that MLS Season Pass is averaging 120,000 unique viewers per match on Apple TV, representing a nearly 50% increase from 2024. For earnings, we cover Q2 ad revenue on YouTube, up 13% YoY and Alphabet's plan to increase capex investment in 2025 to approximately $85 billion, in addition to the cord-cutting numbers from Charter and Verizon. We cover the latest rumors of the NFL’s interest in acquiring an equity stak...
This week, we highlight the key numbers and comments from Netflix's Q2 earnings, covering finances, ad growth, live event strategy, competition, AI, and content strategy. We detail the financial metrics tied to revenue, free cash flow, debt, and estimated full-year 2025 revenue guidance. We discuss all the comments from Netflix's management team regarding measuring household engagement, its upcoming interactive ad launch, the impact of the recent price hike, its deal with TF1, and the acquisi...
This week, we highlight Disney's new content bundling deals with Charter and ITV, as well as Paramount's new agreement with DIRECTV. We discuss Amazon's investment in AI to help remaster SD content into HD, and what we think the impact of AI can be in the video streaming workflow. We also discuss why the media is getting it wrong when they suggest that Google has won the living room, as YouTube tightens its enforcement of its monetization guidelines. We break down the latest rumors that Apple...
This special CDN focused podcast details the latest on delivery pricing and industry trends. I discuss delivery commits, QoE measurement, DIY deployments, HD HDR bitrates, and the impact of vendors exiting the market. I also cover how content owners perform capacity planning at the ASN level, leaching, latency, and why multicasting and P2P won't positively impact the industry. The data comes from my CDN pricing survey, as well as hosting panels and private events at the NAB Show Streaming Sum...
This week, we highlight all the sports news from Peacock, Pac-12, ESPN, Optus Sport, Amazon, IMG, and NASCAR, detailing viewership stats and new licensing deals. We also cover the recent layoffs at Disney, the BBC's low latency live streaming trial, and the current ad loads of Max, Prime Video and Peacock. Finally, we cover some vendor news, including Wowza's acquisition of AI tech company AVA Intellect, and discuss some recent data I collected on the use of AI in the streaming video workflow...



