The Dragon who talked his way up to the skies
Alex Pell on the latest ambitious move from Steven Bartlett
WHAT would be your next move after creating one of the world’s most popular podcasts? Perhaps you’d rest on your laurels and milk this success with spin-off deals. For Steven Bartlett, wunderkind star of the BBC Dragon’s Den and business impresario extraordinaire, it’s just a stepping stone to play in a bigger pond.
Not content with seeing his Diary of a CEO (DOAC) show become Apple’s #1 podcast of 2023 and rack up almost 400 million views on Youtube, Bartlett is launching Flight Studio, a swanky “podcast growth platform” with a global production footprint and an HQ that is firmly based in London.
This is no surprise, given that he has made his feelings about operating within the capital crystal clear.
“It’s funny because sometimes people think that London chose innovation, but I think innovation chose London”, he said during our fireside chat at Zebu Live.
The latest mission is to apply exactly the same geeky methods that propelled Bartlett’s own content from ground level up to these heady heights on to the dreams of others.
And not just any old bunch of aspirational chancers. The initial roster of podcasters includes familiar faces from DOAC, including UK broadcaster Davina Mccall and Dr Tara Stewart, the neuroscientist, who became the show’s highest-performing guest.
“I’ve been looking at starting a podcast around midlife and how to thrive your way through it. So, when Steven told me he was starting a Flight Studio it just seemed a no-brainer to launch it on his platform,” says Mccall.
If you are spotting a theme here in terms of topic material, that is no coincidence.
The focus is apparently to create podcast brands that contribute to a happier, healthier, whole human experience. This makes a refreshing change from the confrontational machismo routinely doled out by the likes of Joe Rogan.
From a tech perspective, what’s interesting here is that Flight Studio promises to be more than just a production house that bets big on wellknown talent to strike gold.
“We have every core component ready to redefine the global podcasting industry … We have done this in our own tiny way already with the Diary of a CEO, but I’m haunted by the potential that we see to scale this globally, for the people and the voices who will change the world,” says a bullish Bartlett.
The firm says it already champions technical experimentation in pursuit of tiny incremental gains. For instance, proprietary analytics that enable it to track the emotional responses of the audience during live previews — and then adjust the material before release, or even to create Ai-voiced podcasts.
At first, the mind boggles. However, when you consider DOAC itself is already reskinned into multiple languages with AI by Spotify, it is clear this type of innovation is the direction of travel. The rapid advent of affordable tools, such as Eleven Labs or Synthesia, have rapidly made it easier to generate audio from text prompts and then layer this on to convincing video avatars, ostensibly for games or training videos.
What Flight Studio seeks to do is weave this approach into credible editorial material, says co-founder and CEO Georgie Holt. The team is already “creating AI voiced podcasts for various genres”, says Holt. She acknowledges concerns that this might undermine the authenticity that audiences crave but talks a great game about the “potential upside for introducing new audiences, formats and ideas. Especially when audiences understand the value exchange of AI in terms of immediacy and personalisation.”
Another intriguing aspect of this launch is the emphasis on video. Holt explains that Flight Studio is a video-first operation that will roll out its brands across Youtube and social media, as opposed to standard podcasts. She insists new audiences prefer to watch rather than simply listen while doing other activities — and thinks rival podcasters are too hung up on their “origin story” when audio is only part of the story.
Holt, who has worked in the capital for two decades, including a stint at the Standard, and is a former managing director of Acast, is adamant that this is the perfect place to set up shop. “We are building global podcast studios, but London as an HQ makes sense from an innovation, expertise and logistical point of view,” she says.
Whether Flight Studio can outgun the likes of Global — the UK’S biggest commercial radio operator, which owns Capital and LBC stations, among others — as well as the might of BBC Sounds and, of course, the Standard’s own burgeoning podcasts, remains to be seen. Despite the myth of the plucky underdog in podcasting, it’s widely reported that the top 1% of podcasts account for around 99% of overall downloads.
Will Bartlett and team be able to bottle the secret sauce that somehow took DOAC into the stratosphere and then use this as rocket fuel for the new venture? Only time will tell — but given the success of his other ventures, it’d be unwise to bet against it.