• by Laurie Sullivan , July 14, 2023

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and former White House adviser Neil Patel are working to raise “hundreds of millions of dollars” to create content for a new media company that would potentially use Twitter as its backbone.

Longer versions of the free video content would become the anchor for the media company.

Carlson has been posting videos regularly on Twitter since leaving Fox News Channel. Despite initially being offered for free., the media company ultimately hopes to drive paid subscriptions, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. 

The company, like others, would have a website and mobile app.

The media company’s potential partnership with Twitter would serve as a test case for Twitter’s video ambitions under Elon Musk.

It also could complicate Twitter’s efforts to rebuild relationships with advertisers, many of which are not fond of Carlson and who have retreated since Musk acquired the company late last year.

Twitter Thursday launched an ad-revenue-sharing program for creators as an example of the company’s effort to expand offerings and compete with YouTube and others. 

Musk has said Carlson is one of many creators Twitter wants on its platform.

On May 9, Carlson posted a video tweet stating he’s back. Along with that tweet, Musk wrote, “I hope that many others, particularly from the left, also choose to be content creators on this platform.”

Earlier this week, MediaPost reported that the audience for Tucker Carlson’s show on Twitter fell dramatically since its debut on June 6, following his ouster from Fox News in April.

Twitter shared its plans in June to focus on video, creator and commerce partnerships to build its social media company beyond advertising. Twitter owner Elon Musk and CEO Linda Yaccarino presented that strategy at an investors conference, according to Reuters.

Yaccarino, who started as CEO on June 5, was previously head of advertising at NBCUniversal.