TRO | Meliora's Clive Dickens Calls On The Audio Industry To Collaborate On AI

Plus, YouTube and FIFA Team Up for the FIFA World Cup 2026 and OpenAI Courts Private Equity for a US$10 Billion Enterprise AI Venture

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Meliora Company
March 23, 2026 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes

Subscribe | 23rd March, 2026

In this fast-moving Vertical AI economy, headlines are everywhere but optimism is rare.

Here’s our take on 3 stories that will help you be relentlessly optimistic about the future.

1. Meliora's Clive Dickens Calls On The Audio Industry To Collaborate On AI

Meliora's International Managing Partner Clive Dickens delivered a keynote at Radiodays Europe in Riga, Latvia today, setting out a challenge to the audio industry: stop competing in silos and start collaborating on AI.

Dickens laid out three problems facing radio and audio: a consumption problem, a sustainability problem, and an investor confidence problem -but framed the solution as collective rather than competitive.

The industry, he argued, should take cues from sectors already building shared technologies and platforms together, and redirect investment towards what actually moves the needle: storytelling, distribution, and marketing.

On AI specifically, Dickens urged the industry to embrace it rather than fear it, pointing to early research showing that people aged 13–34 are now spending more time with AI than reading, and that over 50% of adults are using it weekly.

Here’s why this matters: Radio has always punched above its weight on trust and intimacy, but the audience attention map is being redrawn in real time. Dickens' consumption data is a wake-up call: if younger audiences are spending more time with AI than reading, the competition for ear-time isn't just Spotify or podcasts anymore - instead its ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini.

The collaboration argument is the interesting one. Most audio businesses are too small individually to build meaningful AI capability, but collectively the sector has enormous reach and deeply loyal audiences. If the industry can agree on shared approaches to AI-powered content discovery, audience insight, and new formats, it has a genuine shot at staying relevant. The alternative? Dozens of individual experiments that never scale.

You can view Clive’s RadioDays Europe 2026 keynote presentation here.

2. YouTube and FIFA Team Up for the FIFA World Cup 2026

YouTube has been named FIFA’s preferred platform for the FIFA World Cup 2026, in a deal that will see live match content streamed on the platform for the first time in the tournament’s history. FIFA’s official media partners will have the option of streaming the opening 10 minutes of every match on their YouTube channels, with select games broadcast in full. The platform will also host FIFA’s full digital archive of past matches and iconic moments. A global cohort of YouTube creators will be given unprecedented access to matches for behind-the-scenes content, tactical breakdowns and human-interest stories throughout the June 11 to July 19 tournament across the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Here’s why this matters: The world’s biggest sporting event just picked the world’s biggest video platform as its front door. This isn’t a traditional broadcast deal. It’s a distribution play designed to meet the next generation of fans where they already are. By opening the first 10 minutes of every match for free on YouTube, FIFA is effectively creating a 104-match sample reel that funnels casual viewers toward its broadcast partners. For traditional broadcasters, the signal is clear: live sport is no longer a walled garden. And with YouTube already rolling out embedded AI features like multi-language dubbing, real-time highlights generation and personalised match recaps, the platform is quietly building the infrastructure to make every World Cup moment searchable, shareable and recommendation-ready. The question now is whether other major rights holders follow FIFA’s lead or double down on exclusivity.

3. OpenAI Courts Private Equity for a US$10 Billion Enterprise AI Venture

OpenAI is in advanced discussions with four major private equity firms, TPG, Advent International, Bain Capital and Brookfield Asset Management, to form a joint venture valued at roughly US$10 billion. The PE firms would commit approximately US$4 billion and receive preferred equity stakes and board seats, with TPG serving as anchor investor. The venture would distribute OpenAI’s enterprise products across the firms’ portfolio companies and beyond. Anthropic is simultaneously pursuing a parallel deal with Blackstone, Permira and Hellman & Friedman to deploy Claude across their holdings, though with a smaller equity commitment and common rather than preferred equity terms.

Here’s why this matters: OpenAI and Anthropic have both reached the same conclusion: the fastest route to enterprise AI adoption isn’t a sales team, it’s a private equity firm with hundreds of portfolio companies that need to modernise. TPG, Bain, Advent and Brookfield collectively manage trillions in assets and control thousands of businesses. A single partnership gives OpenAI a distribution channel that would take years to build organically. The preferred equity structure tells you something too: OpenAI is sweetening terms to win the race, which suggests enterprise AI distribution is intensifying as a competitive front. With both companies reportedly eyeing IPOs, the firm that can demonstrate the deepest enterprise penetration will command the richest valuation.

Still Curious?

  • Alphabet expands use of personal intelligence across search, Gemini app and Chrome in the US

  • Disney+ launches ‘Verts’ - a swipeable vertical video feed.

  • Ex-Meta AI chief raises US$1.03b for ‘alternative’ AI approach

  • Comcast accelerate next-gen AI apps using Nvidia infrastructure

  • Global recorded music revenue hit US$31.7b in 2025

  • DoorDash now pays couriers to submit videos to train AI

  • OpenAI expands its government footprint with AWS deal

  • Apple acquires video editing softward company MotionVFX

  • Google launches Stitch AI to better compete with Figma

  • Watch the full ElevenLabs Summit here

Our Pursuit Of Better

Gamma, a platform that harnesses AI to create presentations and websites, is launching a new image-generation product for making marketing assets. The move positions Gamma to better compete with market leaders like Canva and Adobe. The product is called Gamma Imagine, and you can watch the demo here.

An AI-powered design platform called Picsart is launching an AI agent marketplace, allowing creators to “hire” AI assistants to help them with tasks like resizing or editing. With over 130 million users, the unicorn company positions itself among Gen Z-ers as the leader in social media content creation tools.

OpenAI has announced that it will acquire Astral - bringing powerful open source developer tools into its Codex ecosystem. The ⁠company is looking to strengthen its suite of developer tools - and Astral has become a major player ​in the developer community.

Meliora at RadioDays Europe 2026

View and download Managing Partner Clive Dickens keynote on the future of AI for radio businesses, presented at this year’s RadioDays Europe conference in Riga.

Meliora Associate Spotlight

Brendan Collogan - Australia

Brendan Collogan has a wealth of commercial experience in digital products and content strategy, along with a profound understanding of content economics and commercialisation.

Anthony Abbott - Greece

Anthony is a strategic and outcomes-driven product leader with over 20 years of international business experience in the media and entertainment sector, specialising in digital audio and streaming.

The Pursuit of Better, Together

If this week’s newsletter sparked something, pass it on to a colleague. The best conversations often start with “You’ve got to read this”.