How The Sun is developing its video strategy - with commercial revenue director Owen Griffiths

How The Sun is developing its video strategy - with commercial revenue director Owen Griffiths

July 16, 2026 · 12 min · Season 5 · Episode 103

About this episode

Owen Griffiths discusses The Sun's video strategy and its impact on commercial revenue at the Cannes Lions Festival.

This episode was produced in partnership with News UK . News UK’s The Sun is one of many titles to embrace video in recent months. According to the publisher, its videos have driven 60m views and a 110% increase in returning viewers. Its movement into video has also helped secure new sponsors, including Allwyn, DAZN, Betfair, Cardfactory and 32Red. Owen Griffiths is the commercial revenue director of The Sun . At the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity last month, The Media Leader' s content director James Longhurst sat down with him to discuss The Sun ’s video strategy, what makes the publisher’s output unique, and how the World Cup is driving growth this year. Highlights: 1:25: Takeaways for publishers from Cannes: Positioning journalists as creators 2:15: Expanding video for editorial and commercial purposes 6:00: The Sun 's first "video-first" and AI-powered World Cup 7:29: Is AI a threat to publishers, or an opportunity? 8:37: How do journalists feel about becoming creators? 9:54: H2 plans: New video experience in beta, expanding membership, growing in the US Related articles: ‘Place as many bets as possible’: Behind The Sun’s hybrid paywall strategy ‘The division between…

People in this episode

Host: James Longhurst

Guest: Owen Griffiths

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Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Sun, News UK, Allwyn, DAZN, Betfair, Cardfactory, 32Red

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