The Media Odyssey
by Evan Shapiro & Marion Ranchet
Latest episode
THE SECRET TO HALLMARK'S BILLION-MINUTE FANDOM
THE SECRET TO HALLMARK'S BILLION-MINUTE FANDOM
About this podcast
Each week, two of media’s most influential thinkers, Evan Shapiro & Marion Ranchet, take on the hottest media topics with their hottest takes, helping their audience chart a course through the maelstrom that is today’s Media Odyssey.
Based in the US, Evan Shapiro is the Media Industry’s official Cartographer, known for his well-researched and provocative analysis of the entertainment ecosystem in his must read treatises on Media’s latest trends and trajectories.
Marion Ranchet, French expat based in Amsterdam, has become the industry’s go-to expert in all things streaming, building a following for turning even the most complex problems into easily digestible and actionable insights.
Ranchet and Shapiro are known for their sharp-yet-accessible content on Media consumption, audience trends, and the shifting fundamentals of the business itself. Even during the toughest of topics, they each make talking about Media fun. Together every week, these two will offer entertaining, often humorous, and always educational content on today’s Media Odyssey.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 109 episodes
- THE SECRET TO HALLMARK'S BILLION-MINUTE FANDOM · 30 min · Episode 100Hallmark makes 100 movies a year in two to three weeks each, has a 70,000-person waitlist for its annual cruise, and received 84 million views in its first year on YouTube. The…
- WHY BROADCASTERS ARE PARTNERING WITH THE PLATFORM THEY ONCE FEARED · 31 min · Episode 99Three years ago RTL Deutschland had no relationship with YouTube. Today, 200 old episodes of a 1996 action series are driving 123% more first video views and 26% more…
- FINDING YOUR AUDIENCE FROM THE COUCH TO THE TOILET · 33 min · Episode 98Premium streaming lost 89% of the subscribers that signed up for new subscriptions last year, and the audience it’s chasing is watching video in the bedroom, on the bus, and on…
- HOW TO FIX KIDS CONTENT · 49 min · Episode 97YouTube built the kids content economy, then broke its own monetization pipeline. Now it's time to fix kids content. This episode of the Media Odyssey Podcast features hosts Evan…
- THE END OF THE PARAMOUNT SAGA AND THE TECH-BROS OF THE APOCALYPSE · 54 min · Episode 96An Anthropic engineer warned AI could destroy humanity, but Silicon Valley's sudden AI "safety" panic looks a lot like a marketing campaign. This episode of the Media Odyssey…
- THE AFFINITY 100: THE MOST IMPACTFUL CREATORS OF 2026 · 20 min · Episode 95Blair Imani just beat MrBeast on a brand-new ranking of creator influence and and the metric behind it could change how brands spend their money on YouTube, TikTok, and…
- 80% WEEKLY REACH, SHRINKING BUDGETS: EUROPE'S PUBLIC SERVICE MEDIA · 26 min · Episode 94Europe's public broadcasters are losing over 5% of their funding on average, and some budgets are being slashed by up to 70%. It's not because of economics, but ideology. This…
- THE STREAMING PLATFORM RATIO · 29 min · Episode 93Streaming platforms are spending anywhere from 9% to 30% of revenue just to run their tech stack and a new study finally puts real numbers behind the guesswork. Don’t miss this…
- WE KNOW WHAT MEDIA DID THIS SUMMER · 51 min · Episode 92The 2026 World Cup shattered streaming records worldwide, Paramount and Warner Bros are locked in a multi-billion-dollar antitrust standoff, and Meta just settled a landmark…
- REGIFTED: MY DRAMA AND THE VERTICAL TAKEOVER · 33 min · Episode 91Happy Summer Break from The Media Odyssey podcast! What if the future of entertainment fits in your pocket and a six-year-old startup from Ukraine is already building it? Welcome…
- REGIFTED: HOW DISNEY KILLED BROADCAST WITH KIMMEL · 52 min · Episode 90Happy Summer Break from The Media Odyssey podcast! Jimmy Kimmel is at the center of the conversation where politics, free speech, and billion-dollar mergers collide. In this…
- REGIFTED: INSIDE THE MIND OF A CREATOR WUNDERKIND · 1 h 1 min · Episode 89Happy Summer Break from The Media Odyssey podcast! 244 million followers and a six-month content calendar: Jordan Schwarzenberger explains why showing up daily is the only…
- REGIFTED: IS 2026 MEDIA'S DARK AGES · 42 min · Episode 88Happy Summer Break from The Media Odyssey podcast! CES isn’t about gadgets anymore, but who controls the interface between audiences, data, and distribution. Welcome back to The…
- REGIFTED: WHO WILL WIN 2026? · 51 min · Episode 87Happy Summer Break from The Media Odyssey podcast! The media industry isn’t heading for a clean recovery but bracing for another year of pressure, recalibration, and structural…
- REGIFTED: FRONTLINE PUTS PBS ON YOUTUBE · 49 min · Episode 86Happy Summer Break from The Media Odyssey podcast! Public service media isn’t outdated, instead, it’s fighting for relevance, trust, and survival in a fractured global…
- H1 2026 PART 2: BUBBLES, BALLS, & BIG AGGREGATION · 28 min · Episode 85Two-thirds of the world watches more video on their phone than on TV, TikTok is beating Netflix in most markets under 55, and traditional media is ignoring 60% of its own…
- H1 2026 PART 1: BUBBLES, BALLS, & BIG AGGREGATION · 33 min · Episode 84AI infrastructure is now two-thirds of US GDP with 90% of companies investing in it reporting almost no ROI, and the media industry is frozen in place waiting for a merger that…
- THE ART OF THE CAREER PIVOT · 51 min · Episode 83We’re back with another Media Odyssey LIVE! In this episode, Evan and Marion are joined by former media executives Tony Goncalves and Ami Angelowicz to discuss how to pivot your…
- MEDIA SHARK WEEK · 39 min · Episode 82Comcast is splitting in three, Fox just bought Roku for $22 billion, and the Paramount-Warner merger still hasn't closed. Welcome to Media Shark Week. This episode of the Media…
- VERTICAL PREMIUM TV: THE NEXT BILLION DOLLAR IDEA? · 45 min · Episode 81The growing vertical video landscape has potential far beyond microdramas. Two TV veterans just built the studio to take vertical premium all the way with true crime, dating…
