Some dissent in Bill Simmons’ The Ringer publishing and podcast network is airing out publicly.
Sean Fennessey, the head of content for the Ringer and host of the platform’s popular “The Big Picture” podcast, appeared on the podcast “Talk Easy With Sam Fragoso” on Aug. 30 and touched on several topics — including that Ringer shows like “Big Picture” have been licensed by Spotify to Netflix, despite the fact that the podcast’s participants discuss content that might appear on the streamer.
“I think there’s an inherent conflict with the work that we’re doing,” he said. “I don’t think it totally makes sense for a show that’s covering films released by Netflix to be licensed nonexclusively to Netflix — but it wasn’t my decision, so we’re working within that reality.”
Fennessey has been with Simmons’ company since it launched in 2016. The Netflix licensing deal was announced in October 2025. The Ringer is owned by Spotify, which acquired the media business in 2020 in a $250 million deal with Simmons.
Elsewhere in the podcast, Fennessey, who was speaking alongside his “Big Picture” co-host Amanda Dobbins, was asked about Simmons’ podcast having ChatGPT as a sponsor, as well as his boss occasionally doing bits asking the AI chatbot what Roger Ebert might have thought about a movie released after his 2013 death.
“I don’t like it. I’ve told Bill I don’t like it,” Fennessey said of the ChatGPT bits involving Ebert. “It’s not my decision. It’s something that he’s done. I think [fellow Ringer podcaster] Chris [Ryan] and I have both, when presented with ChatGPT Ebert, we’ve said ‘Eh, that’s not cool,’ you know. I wouldn’t want that done for me after I died, and I wouldn’t want to be represented in that way, and I revere Roger Ebert. I’m thinking very critically about AI and trying to not be an alarmist and trying to be thoughtful about what’s coming, while also having a clearer moral view of what it means and how it’s going to impact us.”