OpenAI wants to control the narrative. Literally.
The AI giant bought TBPN, the tech industry’s hottest talk show, in a deal so shocking that one of its hosts joked it wasn’t a belated April Fool’s joke.
A good chunk of you might be asking, “TBP what?” You’re not wrong for wondering. As popular as the weekday, three-hour show is, it’s also intensely focused on tech. (That’s on purpose. John Coogan, one of the cohosts, recently talked about TBPN being intentionally niche.)
Within that specific group, it is huge. Dubbed “SportsCenter” for Silicon Valley, it’s basically a must-watch for tech bros. Hence why people are freaking out about one of the biggest tech startups buying one of the industry’s most popular shows.
BI’s Peter Kafka has some great analysis on why the deal makes sense. For a company that’s thinking in trillions of dollars, spending a few hundred million (terms weren’t disclosed, but that’s the number being floated) to nab your industry’s most influential show makes a lot of sense.
And it’s not just getting a show. It’s a direct line to the people shaping the industry it’s looking to dominate.
(We’ve also got some more takes on the news from other smart people around the interwebs.)
Questions are swirling about whether this OpenAI-version of TBPN can retain its magic.
TBPN hosts Coogan and Jordi Hays have said they will maintain editorial independence from OpenAI. But TBPN will also assist OpenAI with marketing and communications outside the show, potentially blurring the lines between coverage and promotion.
Still, it’s not like TBPN is looking to break big scoops or investigations like “60 Minutes.” Coogan and Hays are both former tech founders who are unabashedly pro-tech. That formula has helped them court the biggest names in the industry, and is unlikely to change under the new regime.
What will be interesting to see is how many of those big names are willing to come on now that the show is backed by their competition. Will Mark Zuckerberg welcome TBPN back to Meta’s headquarters now that his rival Sam Altman is signing their checks? What about executives from Anthropic or Google?
OpenAI competitors will need to ask themselves: Is reaching the audience TBPN holds worth helping a rival you’re actively fighting for market share?
What does seem inevitable is that we’re about to get A LOT of TBPN copycats, writes BI’s Sydney Bradley, Dan Whateley, and Lucia Moses.
Livestreaming talk shows were already on the rise. OpenAI shelling out for TBPN only adds fuel to that fire. And in an industry known for imitation, other AI giants might snap up their own version of TBPN.
An influx of new shows could just water down the market, though. SportsCenter was largely successful because it was the only place to watch sports highlights. That changed with social media, and was the beginning of the end of SportsCenter’s era of dominance.
TBPN may be at the center of tech conversation right now. The question is how long any one show can stay there.
