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The Town with Matthew Belloni

Hollywood’s Inevitable Pivot to Vertical Video Is Here

The Town with Matthew Belloni

The Ringer

Society & Culture

4.31.1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2026

⏱️ 34 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Matt is joined by Hernan Lopez, founder of Owl and Co. and Wondery, to talk about the rise of vertical video, how it ballooned to a $100B/year business, the staggering success of Reels, and which companies in Hollywood are best suited to benefit the most from this trend (00:00). Matt finishes the show with a prediction about next season's cast of 'Saturday Night Live' (26:50). Host: Matt Belloni Guest: Hernan Lopez Producers: Craig Horlbeck and Matt Pevic Theme Song: Devon Renaldo Industry voters visit Starz FYC.com. For more information visit Hulu.com/FYC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

This episode of The Town is brought to you by Stars' Outlander.

0:08.5

Everything has led to this.

0:10.3

The final chapter of the time-traveling drama and cultural phenomenon starring Sam Hewain

0:15.0

and Catriona Balfe is only on Stars.

0:18.2

Vogue declares Outlander one of television's greatest love stories,

0:21.7

and the rap raves, Balf and Hewinn, have perfected this on-screen relationship.

0:26.3

Industry voters can access all episodes at StarsFYC.com.

0:33.2

Head to the coast in Abercrombie's latest summer drop.

0:37.0

It's short season, and their new C-Fade shorts add the perfect wash look to your fit.

0:42.3

They're so easy to throw on and pair with everything in your closet.

0:46.2

Complete the look with a new shirt and your set.

0:49.3

Prep for summer with Abercrombie in the app, online, and in stores.

0:57.0

Pick on! with Abercrombie in the app, online, and in stores. It is Wednesday, May 20th.

1:02.0

In the past month or so, Netflix, Disney, Paramount, along with Google and Meta,

1:06.0

they've all promoted their vertical video products during earnings calls.

1:10.8

Amazon, TikTok, and NBC Universal, they announced new products as well.

1:15.3

Many of these offerings are in the very early stages, but the genre of short-form content

1:20.0

conceived and produced to be watched vertically on a phone is definitely a hot trend right now.

1:25.9

By some estimates, it's a hundred billion

1:27.6

a year business, about half of which comes from Reels, the short form video product that

1:32.4

runs on Facebook and Instagram. Reels is making as much revenue as Netflix these days,

1:37.2

and everybody is chasing that engagement time, the holy grail of streaming, usually with

...

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