Quote · The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Why Storytelling Is Now the Most Valuable Skill in Tech
Where this was said
The OpenAI-TBPN Deal: Hundreds of Millions for a 74K-Subscriber Podcast
At 12:00 · chapter starts 10:55
The most vivid proof point of the episode arrives in the form of a seemingly absurd deal. TBPN was a two-year-old tech livestream with 74,000 YouTube subscribers and approximately $5 million in annual advertising revenue — a respectable but modest media operation by any conventional measure [1] — Scott Galloway "TBPN had 74,000 YouTube subscribers and $5 million in annual ad revenue. OpenAI paid what the Financial Times reported as a low hundreds of…" 10:45 . OpenAI paid what the Financial Times reported as a low hundreds of millions of dollars for it, then immediately shut down the advertising business. Galloway's interpretation is the key: OpenAI wasn't buying a media company. They were buying a voice, an audience of influential people in Silicon Valley, and the credibility that the most powerful figures in tech actively sought out as a platform. In TBPN's own words, 'the standard communication playbook just doesn't apply to us.' Galloway quotes his research lead Mia Silverio: 'OpenAI has a brand problem, and TBPN could be the solution.' He's skeptical it'll be enough, but concedes it's a rational bet when you have near-zero cost of capital.
OpenAI acquired TBPN, a 2-year-old tech livestream with 74,000 YouTube subscribers and ~$5M in ad revenue, for a low hundreds of millions of dollars.
An analysis of 900,000 newly created web pages in April 2025 found that 74% contained detectable AI-generated content.
74% of new web pages created in April 2025 contained detectable AI content. By late 2024, more than half of all new English-language articles were primarily AI-written — up from just 5% before ChatGPT. The flood of AI slop triggered a cultural backlash: nearly a third of consumers now say they're less likely to choose brands using AI-generated ads.
