Scoop: Red Seat Ventures builds premium membership for the ultra-wealthy
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Red Seat Ventures, the talent company acquired by Fox Corp. in 2025, is building a premium membership program for ultra-wealthy individuals that's focused on hospitality, CEO Chris Balfe confirmed to Axios.
Why it matters: As consumer spending shifts to live experiences, Balfe and Fox Corp. see an opportunity to get ahead of that market while its peers focus on making money from subscription streaming.
- "Live events are getting more premium and more special," Balfe told Axios in an interview at the Paley Center for Media last week.
- "We think we have a really innovative way to put a premium spin on getting access to the world's best events at the world's best venues," he added, referencing the access Fox Corp. has to premium events like the World Cup and NASCAR.
Zoom in: Job listings posted last year suggest Red Seat is building a membership designed to give ultra-wealthy individuals and business leaders access to premium live entertainment experiences.
- "This includes service delivery, concierge operations, retention, and VIP engagement," one job posting read.
- A job posting for a membership sales leader says Red Seat's ambition is to "develop and execute city-level sales strategies across high-value member segments, beginning with New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago."
- That sales leader will be expected to "build partnerships with wealth managers, luxury brokers, family offices, and executive networks."
- Balfe said there will be a level of selectivity in choosing members.
Zoom out: Balfe acknowledged that the core business as a podcast and talent network for high-profile creators doesn't have much to do with the new membership program per se, but said Fox Corp. bought Red Seat in part because of its entrepreneurial DNA.
- Founded in 2015 by Balfe and his brother Kevin Balfe, Red Seat has become one of the fastest-growing podcast networks in the past decade.
- Last month, Red Seat Ventures acquired Supercast, a podcast subscription platform.
- Today, its talent roster includes a slew of conservative media stars such as Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson and Bill O'Reilly, as well as true crime and lifestyle hosts such as Crime Junkie's Ashley Flowers, former NBC journalist Chris Hansen and Dr. Phil.
The intrigue: When asked whether a tension exists for Red Seat creators who are former Fox News stars, Balfe said his company is a creator services engine.
- "We work for them [the creators]," he said. "They don't work for us."
- Red Seat focuses primarily on podcasts but also helps its talent build businesses across an array of revenue streams, including merchandise and subscriptions.
- O'Reilly, he said, has about 600,000-800,000 subscribers to his newsletter.
