We give you our long awaited AAA Gaming Deep Dive this time and it doesn't disappoint: find out all about the origins, the economics and the accuracies of equine thermodynamics! Add to that YouTube "Skinny Bundles", it all going off at Anthropic and new faces at the top of Disney together with two sporting marquee events and a world of auto-romance and you have yourselves a whopper of an Ep.! Enjoy.

There is too much news to fit in a Deep Dive this time what with all the buzz around Luminate, TikTok, Netflix and the BBC partnering with YouTube so we haven't got one. Podmojis feature a "live" prop and we "beam" Maureen in from a swanky hotel in 'Frisco!

In this special curtain raiser for 2026, Maureen and Claire gaze into their respective crystal balls and reveal what they think will be the major media trends, strategies and innovations over the next 12 months on the back of a spectacularly successful set of predictions for 2025.

In our now traditional "what did Maureen and Claire predict for this year?" episode, we go though what our two great prophets said was going to happen in 2025, some 12 months ago. You will be surprised how well they did. Have a listen (or re-listen) to Episode #63 if you want to hear their predictions in full. Then, gather round the wireless in front of the fire and have a listen. We're on in between The King's Speech and something or other from Ant and Dec. Happy Christmas one and all!

A fabulous Deep Dive this time on the "Creative Economy" of which we are, of course, a part! Netflix and WBD goes "beyond juicy" our Spotify Wrapped ages are wildly different and are Vertical Dramas coming of age? Our move into video (about five years after everyone else) is proving very popular for fans of Podmojis for obvious reasons.

Would you believe Spotify is nearly 20 year old? Well, believe it and all the history and strategy Claire and Maureen have to share with us. News covers big deals and big launches and our presenters struggle to gain supremacy in the Podmoji arena with weird socks, the big TikTok Shop and a quiet revolution in Hollywood.

A brilliant deep dive on Netflix this time and the news is all about WBD selling up, the potential of an AI bubble and Disney integrating with Hulu. Despite being half the world away (literally) Claire grabs whatever she can for podmojis to cover AI presenters, Taylor Sheridan and Celebrity Traitors. Will there be an outright winner?

Today is a very special episode in that we welcome a guest: Dr. Alex Connock, producer-turned-academic, now teaching AI and media at both Oxford and Exeter.

Alex was actually on The Media Beat two years ago, when we talked about his first book, Media Management and Artificial Intelligence. Since then, both AI and the media industry have moved at extraordinary speed.

He’s back with a brand-new book, Entrepreneurship in Media and Entertainment, just out from Routledge - exploring how AI, creativity, and entrepreneurship are reshaping every stage of the media business, from start-up ideas to scale-ups and exits.

Today we’re talking with Alex about what that transformation really looks like in practice: how AI is changing storytelling, production, talent, and education - and what the next generation of media entrepreneurs need to know to stay ahead.