TellyCast: The content industry podcast

What happens when two experienced television producers decide to leave the traditional TV industry and build a digital-first business from scratch? In this episode of TellyCast, Justin Crosby sits down with Pete Campion, Co-Founder of IndyStudios, to explore how he and former BBC producer Matt Ramsden have made the leap from broadcast television into the creator economy. Pete spent more than two decades producing large-scale international factual series, including the hugely successful Gold R...

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 joined by micro drama producer Samantha Sun from ReelForce to unpack how vertical, app-based scripted series really work. Samantha shares her journey from early Chinese-backed micro drama platforms to producing some of the biggest-budget vertical dramas made in the UK...

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, conversations on the podcast, and insights from TellyCast events throughout the year, the episode breaks down six defining trends: the rise of creator collectives as studio systems, the explosion of micro drama and vertical video, the maturation of vodcasting a...

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 faster than anyone expected — and what that means for producers, brands and the entire media landscape. Sam breaks down the future of news in a video-first world, how SWNS is reshaping itself across six companies, and why trust, truth and journalistic ri...

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, TheSoul Group’s Victor Potrel and writer-director-producer Katharina Gellein Viken to unpack the boom in micro drama. Moderated by Deadline’s Stewart Clarke, the panel digs into what audiences are actually watching, how shows are being funded and distributed, ...

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-Jones, how their channel People Are Deep became an award-winning social video hit, and why Channel 4 trusted them to run its new comedy channel A Comedy Thing. Thom also shares his take on the next phase of the creator economy, the rise of streamer-led d...

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 Gielen — digital media entrepreneur and former CEO of Electric Monster, Tobias Hoss from Lunar X, ITV Studios’ Cecile Olsen, Spirit Studios’ Matt Campion and All3 Media International's Gary Woolf. They discuss how traditional media is finally embracing You...

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 different kind of spy in Betrayal, playing MI5 operative John Hughes — a man navigating a collapsing marriage, shifting office politics and a looming terrorist threat no one else believes is real. The pair reveal the five-year journey behind the series, how writer David Eldridge...