Hollywood’s Inevitable Pivot to Vertical Video Is Here

The Town with Matthew Belloni

The Ringer

Society & Culture

4.3 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2026

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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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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