Hernan Lopez

Media & Tech Entrepreneur | Founder, Owl & Co, @WonderyMedia, @hernanlopezff | Founding Governor, @podcastacademy

[Hernan Lopez @hernanlopez]

Vertical video is on track to generate $150B in revenue ex-China in 2026, up 42% year-over-year.

Yesterday, 250 operators, investors, and builders gathered in Hollywood for the first Vertical Media Summit, a working session where the category's biggest questions got real answers.

"First came Film. Then came TV. Talent pools, aesthetics, business models were born miles apart.
Vertical is the third audiovisual language", from my opening keynote.

What we learned:

→ At least three vertical-native companies are now billion-dollar businesses by revenue. Joey Jia, co-founder and CEO of ReelShort, told me on stage that 75% of their revenue already comes from subscriptions. The IAP-first model is evolving faster than most expected.

→ TikTok and Sundance Collab announced a micro-series writing program, unveiled by Dawn Yang. The largest vertical native platform in the world is now commissioning original scripted.

→ COL Group's Timothy Oh announced "Mapogo: The Lion Throne," the first premium vertical wildlife documentary. Vertical is branching into genres nobody saw coming.

→ Holywater Tech previewed exclusive behavioral data from a first-of-its-kind study conducted with Owl & Co: male viewership and younger audiences are surging. Full study drops next week.

Rich Greenfield put it plainly from the stage: "Take vertical video seriously or be disrupted."

The room included @YouTube, @Google, CAA, @NBCUniversal, Fox, East West Bank, WaterTower Ventures, LionTree, and dozens of producers, investors, and founders building what comes next.

Thank you to our moderators Mary Ann Halford and @natjarv, our sponsors East West Bank, Talent Systems, and MonkeyPaw Post, and media partner @Variety.

One ask: We announced phase one of the Vertical Economy Report, the first systematic effort to map how value flows through this category. If you are or want to be in the space, complete the survey linked below, and we will share the core findings with those who contribute while helping you make connections.

The companies that treat vertical as a format will miss the boat. The ones that treat it as a language will build the next decade of enterprise value.

If you're trying to figure out where you fit, that's what Owl & Co does. Let's talk.

My full keynote and other highlights coming up in the next issue of Streamonomics.

https://t.co/oz8Plny0H7

[Hernan Lopez @hernanlopez]

@Lucas_Shaw @brianstelter I was quoting the point made by Peter. Remarkable that he’s 21, even younger when the movie was made.

[Hernan Lopez @hernanlopez]

@RichLightShed Thank you Rich! Looking forward to seeing you. Every major studio, streamer and tech platform will be there.

[Hernan Lopez @hernanlopez]

@MattBelloni Peter is the rare boss who was as comfortable reading a script as a balance sheet and inspired everyone to do so. All of us at Fox learned so much from him

[Hernan Lopez @hernanlopez]

Why are Big Tech and Hollywood Going Vertical? We've assembled four companies that sit across the entire ecosystem to answer that question.

On June 3 in LA at the *sold-out* Vertical Media Summit, @Google, @YouTube, @NBCUniversal, and CAA will be on stage discussing vertical together for the first time.

The speakers:

→ Juanjo Duran (Google): Global Head, Media & Entertainment Partnerships. How Google thinks about vertical drama, including in the living room.

→ Fede Goldenberg (YouTube): Global Head, TV & Film Partnerships. What YouTube learned from Shorts becoming both a discovery and monetization format for entertainment companies.

→ Zoë Friend (NBCUniversal): EVP, Consumer Insights. NBCU was the first US major streamer to add vertical dramas, commission vertical reality, and broadcast vertical NBA.

→ Greg Siegel (CAA): Agent & Head of Digital Media Advisory. The Hollywood lens on how talent and studios think about platform choice, distribution and economics, including the Dhar Mann-Fox deal that put 40+ microdramas on MyDrama.

Thank you for your enthusiasm. We are sold out, and have opened a waitlist while we try to secure additional capacity: link below. June 3, W Hollywood

https://t.co/QzP0iwWlLM

[Variety @Variety]

#ad| Film. Television. Vertical video: the third audiovisual language. $100B+ and most of it still up for grabs. 7 days to the Vertical Media Summit. Los Angeles. June 3. https://t.co/m13nxiZJg5
@hernanlopez

[Hernan Lopez @hernanlopez]

When he's not on set as an EP on @netflix's Wednesday, Tommy Harper is running VeYou, his new vertical app.

On June 3 in LA, we're adding a new panel to the Vertical Media Summit: The Future of Vertical: New Genres, AI, and What TV/Film Can Learn.

The category is moving fast, across genres, business models, platforms, and AI, but the commercial playbook is still narrow. Most of the "firsts" haven't been written. Monetization models are evolving, while super-apps and premium streaming apps are circling. The question I'm putting to the panel: where does this go from here, and what should traditional entertainment be watching?

The speakers:

→ Tommy Harper (VeYou), a Hollywood heavyweight behind Wednesday and Top Gun: Maverick now building vertical-first
→ Timothy Oh (COL Group), sits where you can read tomorrow's newspaper today
→ Bogdan Nesvit (Holywater Tech), bringing exclusive data on vertical viewers: what, where, and when they watch, what would make them watch more, and how do they feel about streaming overall
→ Fernando Szew (Fox), runs the first US studio to move on vertical, and can speak to what the inside of that bet actually looks like.

VIP is sold out. Limited general admission passes still available.

June 3. W Hollywood. Link below.

Thank you to our sponsors, East West Bank, Talent Systems, and Monkeypaw Post

https://t.co/3kln6SNzkM

[Matthew Belloni @MattBelloni]

Five years ago yesterday, I sent the first issue of @PuckNews What I'm Hearing. As a thank you to the tens of thousands of subscribers, I asked about 100 of them what's changed most in Hollywood since May 2021. The smartest answers ⬇️⬇️ https://t.co/outGICmMJ5

[Hernan Lopez @hernanlopez]

@MattBelloni Honored to be a returning champion!

[Hernan Lopez @hernanlopez]

@peacock @netflix @amazon @Disney https://t.co/XYmn5u0CZg

[Hernan Lopez @hernanlopez]

Last week, @peacock became the first major US streamer to add microdramas to their mobile app, licensing 10 titles from ReelShort, shortly after announcing two original vertical reality series.

And they weren't alone: in the last six weeks @netflix, @amazon, @Disney+, @paramountplus, Alphabet, @Meta and TikTok all called out their vertical video products in earnings releases or announced new ones. The momentum is undeniable. But the playbook for the third audiovisual language is still being written.

On June 3 in Los Angeles, we're bringing together the people writing it at the Vertical Media Summit.

Five conversations across the full landscape:

→ Why Big Tech and Hollywood Are Going Vertical
→ TikTok, Micro-series and What's Next
→ Fireside: Inside ReelShort
→ The Future of Vertical: AI, New Genres and What TV & Film Can Learn
→ Fundraising, Scaling and Exit

Who's in the room: Nearly every major streamer and studio. Global platforms spanning entertainment, news, and sports. Dedicated vertical video apps and the social and tech platforms competing with them. Talent agencies, founders, and creators. AI infrastructure, adtech, and monetization providers. Venture, growth, and strategic capital. And the business and entertainment press covering it all.

Speakers include Joey Jia (ReelShort), Dawn Yang (TikTok), Fede Goldenberg (YouTube), bogdan nesvit (Holywater Tech), Montrel McKay (Hoorae Productions), Greg Siegel (CAA), Fernando Szew (Fox), and more.

The Vertical Media Summit is a half-day event where the people building and creating for the category meet the people funding and distributing it.

Limited seats. Loft at the W Hollywood. June 3. Link in comments.

Thank you to our sponsors East West Bank and Talent Systems, LLC.

[Hernan Lopez @hernanlopez]

15 months ago I published "Streaming has a mobile problem-opportunity". Action Point # 3: Go Vertical.
In the last five weeks, Netflix, Disney, Alphabet, Meta, Paramount called out their vertical products in earnings releases while Amazon, TikTok, Comcast announced/launched new ones. The third audiovisual language is just being built.

[Hernan Lopez @hernanlopez]

Fifteen months ago, I published the deck "Streaming has a mobile problem-opportunity." One of its four imperatives: go vertical.

Many read it as a format debate, but it never was. Vertical is the third audiovisual language, following film and TV, and it's already worth $100B.

In the last five weeks alone, @netflix, @Disney, Alphabet, @Meta and Paramount called out their vertical video products in earnings calls while Amazon, TikTok and Comcast announced new ones. Vertical-native platforms like @ReelShort_TV, MyDrama and Whatnot keep compounding engagement and revenue.

Drama, comedy, news, sports, animation, reality, live shopping: every genre is going vertical. Advertisers are following: consumers are already there. The economics are evolving, the aesthetics are new. Most of it is still up for grabs. On June 3 in LA, we're convening the operators, studios, platforms and investors building this language at the https://t.co/BgrYMky1hB One keynote, four panels, one fireside chat, supported by proprietary data and a curated room. Seats are limited.

[Hernan Lopez @hernanlopez]

The ATN20 are now worth $20 trillion. Not all gained.

In five weeks, the Attention 20 added 20% in enterprise value, outperforming the S&P 500 by eight points. The Streaming Eight drove $9.8B in operating profit in Q1, up 54% year over year. But the market didn't reward everyone equally.

The upside:
→ @Disney had the biggest single-day gain of the quarter. Josh D'Amaro's debut call was set up to work because it shifted the conversation from quarterly results (which were good to begin with) to long-term strategy. Five weeks ago, Disney's EV was just over half of @netflix; today, close to 63%.
→ Alphabet gained the most EV in absolute dollars since we started tracking (+35%), driven by record cloud growth and AI gains powering Search and YouTube.
→ @amazon held its 2026 capex outlook steady while peers raised theirs. Investors rewarded the discipline. While not a driver of investors' perception yet, their streaming businesses grew top line by 22% by our estimates, profits even higher.

The downside:
→ Netflix and Spotify both lost EV despite strong prints. The pattern: beating without raising guidance reads as management forecasting deceleration. (Spotify has an investor day next week, likely saving narrative firepower for that day).
→ Meta lost ground despite eye-popping 33% revenue growth, punished for a $10B increase to its 2026 capex guide.

The variable is often not what the quarter delivered, but what each company said about the next four (and in Disney's case, the long-term; reminder that none of this is investment advice.)

This week's Streamonomics® (link under my name) breaks down each company's results, the @ufc's early returns for @paramountplus, why even companies with strong results tend to not raise guidance during Q1, and why the Q2 narrative game has already started.

Plus, one signal: Disney, Netflix, Paramount, Meta, and Alphabet all called out their vertical video products in their earnings calls. On Friday, Amazon turned it on inside Prime Video mobile. And yesterday, @peacock announced two vertical reality shows.

Which company's Q1 story surprised you most?

[Hernan Lopez @hernanlopez]

https://t.co/5ATcOMrHM1

[Hernan Lopez @hernanlopez]

Bogdan Nesvit has the data, and he shares it.

His colleagues at Holywater Tech have probably told him to hold back; he doesn't. And that's exactly why he's one of the speakers at the Vertical Media Summit on June 3 in Los Angeles.

One of the trends Bogdan has been tracking should be of interest to anyone in entertainment:

→ In China, AI-generated short dramas just surpassed live-action in views for the first time
→ They're 10x cheaper and 10x faster to produce
→ Engagement is almost identical (but there is a big “if”)

This isn't a vertical video story, it's a Hollywood story. Still, Holywater Tech is producing some of the most creatively ambitious microdramas in live-action (including the musical Playback to name just one example).

Bogdan will be in the room alongside executives from nearly every major streamer, studio, and talent agency, plus the founders, builders, and investors shaping this $100B+ market.

If you want to understand where AI meets content economics, this is the conversation to be in.

Limited seats. Loft at the W Hollywood. Tickets in comments.

Thank you to our sponsors East West Bank and Talent Systems, LLC.

[Hernan Lopez @hernanlopez]

@RichLightShed Just in: https://t.co/t6WuK7i4qX

[Hernan Lopez @hernanlopez]

Amazon Prime Video adds vertical, starting with clips

https://t.co/t6WuK7i4qX

[Hernan Lopez @hernanlopez]

@RichLightShed Thank you for having me @RichLightShed! Excited to continue the conversation at the VMS.