Fox's Red Seat Ventures is taking aim at Substack with a new offering for creators

Fox's Red Seat Ventures is coming for Substack.

Led by Chris Balfe, Red Seat made its name operating revenue and manufacturing services for podcasters including Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and Nancy Grace.

Now, as the lines between creators, podcasters, and writers continue to blur, it's adding newsletter functionality to its stack. The newsletter characteristic volition live under Supercast, a business Red Seat bought this twelvemonth that offers a list of subscription options akin livestreaming for creators. They can now build liberated and paid newsletters and track their achievement on a dashboard. The newsletter characteristic is included in Supercast's basis pricing of $0.59 per subscriber per month, alongside tradition pricing accessible for big networks and media companies.

"We desire to be a one-stop shop for creators," Balfe told Business Insider. "Whereas Substack has done a really fine job going following written-first creators, and afterward adding podcasting capability on top of that, we're going at it from the another direction and saying, for most of the creators that we activity with, their audio and video is their chief business. So, let's add another features akin email and livestreaming."

Balfe pointed to clown Tony Hinchcliffe of "Kill Tony" as an first example of Red Seat's achievement in using a multifaceted approach. Since launching a subscription, Kill Tony+, Hinchcliffe has signed up thousands of group who get his uncensored, ad-free display and reward content.

Hinchcliffe plans to create another, super-expensive tier anywhere group would pay to get roasted by him, Balfe said.

"It would be akin $10,000 or item akin that to roast you," Balfe said. "We volition market out of these so bad."

He additionally pointed to an first aviator of Supercast's livestreaming alongside "This American Life," which drew additional than 1,700 paying spectators members.

Red Seat is aiming for 10 big deals

Balfe wants to create Red Seat a creator-economy juggernaut, alongside several 200 shows. The business has about 30 shows now and is looking to do a lot additional deals quickly, particularly in sports, lifestyle, entertainment, and tech. Red Seat's top creator deals mostly pay a minimum justify against projected sales.

"We really desire to accelerate our charge of dealmaking," Balfe said. "I think if we did 10 big deals in the next 12 months, that would be big."

Balfe disagrees alongside industry insiders akin iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman, who say podcast allocation deals are getting too expensive. He stated there was powerful advertiser petition and that hosts have the capability to branch out into another areas. Balfe stated he's doing deals anywhere the display itself accounts for as small as 60% of the revenue, alongside the remainder coming from another projects.

Balfe additionally sees the possible for creators to create longer deals. YouTubers are frequently used to getting short-term ad deals, during Red Seat is pushing for 12-month partnerships for its clients, he said.

"We're trying to do annual deals," he said. "YouTubers are attracted to that kind of consistency that the podcast endeavor example has allowed."

Podcasts are TV now

Podcasting has rotate into additional of a video-first average as it has evolved from its audio roots.

Forty-four percent of US podcast consumers watched a video podcast in the former week, up from 40% in 2025, according to a study from commerce collection Sounds Profitable released this month. YouTube is the top podcast platform, used by 63% in the former 12 months, onward of Spotify (33%), Netflix (21%), and Apple Podcasts (15%).

Balfe thinks video volition continue to develop its portion of the pie. People are observing additional podcasts on YouTube, particularly on TV screens. Spotify is making the case that video use outperforms audio on its platform.

Major streamers are additionally starving for podcasts, and linear TV players akin Versant's MS NOW are looking for lower-cost programming to inhabit their schedules. Red Seat's shows aren't operating on Fox's linear networks today, but Balfe stated it's lone a matter of period before that happens.

"I appearance at the next phase of video opportunities, and we have all streamer that wants our satisfied now: Hulu, Peacock, and Amazon Prime, and Paramount Plus," Balfe said. "We additionally have the linear guys that are starting to arrive to us and say, 'Actually, what you're producing looks benevolent of akin a conversation show. Maybe we should fair put it in delayed night or daytime.'"