Weekly Roundup – September 23rd, 2025
Roundup Links
Radio Industry Push Pays Off As AM Bill Powers Toward House Floor.
From meeting with lawmakers in Washington to cornering them at public events back in their districts,
the radio industry’s effort to build support for a bill that will require AM radio in every passenger vehicle
has been among its biggest ground operations in years. The latest tally shows 304 House members
support the legislation, with only two bills — one supporting veterans with disabilities, another
commemorating the 1980 U.S. Winter Olympic “Miracle on Ice” hockey team — having more cosponsors.
So, when the House Commerce Committee voted this week to scale back the scope of the proposal from
a 10-year requirement to eight years, many were left wondering why there was a need for what was billed
as a “compromise” with so many members of Congress on their side.
Our Take: An 8 year requirement for new vehicles to be produced with AM radio would be a huge win for the industry. Of course, the industry should not celebrate its potential win just yet as the dial can be pushed even further (Especially with majority House support).
TikTok buyer group includes Rupert Murdoch and Michael Dell, Trump says
Media moguls Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch and tech entrepreneur Michael Dell are expected to be
among the U.S. investors who would be part of the potential deal for TikTok, President Trump claimed on
Sunday.
Why it matters: The exact terms and timing remain unknown, but it's becoming clearer that the process to
bring a version of TikTok under U.S. control is at least advancing
Our Take: The kids are pretty much always on Reels or TikTok. That the Murdochs are involved in a possible deal for TikTok signals the following: 1. They want a slice of that younger demo. 2. TikTok has proven to be a key driver in generating ‘cultural moments’ and is particularly influential in curating the tastes, attitudes, sensibilities, and politics of its users. In short, you can shape the conversation to your liking (much like Elon is doing on X)
Sports rights owners are embracing YouTube creators as their next media partners
"From YouTube broadcasters to credentialed TikTokers, sports rights owners are embracing creators —
and rethinking what a media partner looks like.
In recent weeks, Germany’s Bundesliga became the first top-tier league to award live match rights in the
U.K. to YouTube personalities like Mark Goldbridge, whose “That’s Football” channel boasts millions of
subscribers. In Brazil, YouTube’s recent broadcast of the Chiefs-Chargers NFL game featured creator
Deestroying as a sideline host, effectively reimagining the play-by-play for a Gen Z audience
Our Take: If you are a millennial or older, this sort of influencer/creator live stream content can seem a bit tacky or plainly irritating. For a lot of Gen Z and younger generations, live streamers on platforms like YouTube and Twitch are a filter through which they interpret the world. These independent entities (streaming personalities/creators) confer legitimacy to a media product by conducting a live stream featuring, say, a football game. Most young people get their news from influencers on social media, not media institutions themselves. Think of creators like an intermediary to help interpret an event for the Minecraft generation. It makes sense that you are seeing more and more leagues partner up with YouTubers and TikTokers to sell their media product.
‘Look at the charts’: Democrats desert legacy media for new outlets
...Anti-Trump YouTubers are consistently topping the platform’s podcast charts — and snagging VIP
invites to YouTube’s upfront advertising and media presentations in New York. Substack’s leaderboard
filled with anti-Trump voices furious over the silencing of the mainstream media. And Democratic elected
officials are making a concerted effort to spoonfeed their digital online personalities to sympathetic
Americans, often at the expense of their former legacy media allies.
Our Take: The GOP’s ground game in getting Trump elected in 2016 heavily borrowed from Obama’s 2008 run that pioneered the ‘social media political campaign’ to great effect. Democrats took their eye off the ball while a decentralized network of right-leaning influencers and creators exponentially grew in the intervening years (and was key to Trump’s success in 2024; dubbed the ‘Podcast Election’). Dems and party upper brass this time around are hitting the ground running with a growing stable of independent podcasters, YouTubers, Substackers, and TikTokers pushing the party line (read; being strongly anti- Trump). Younger generations have no allegiance to legacy media in the same way older generations do and it’s probably good for party leaders at the DNC to realize this sooner rather than later.
