Sean Fennessey, head of content at Bill Simmons' The Ringer and host of "The Big Picture" podcast, has publicly criticised his parent company's licensing arrangement with Netflix. Speaking on the "Talk Easy With Sam Fragoso" podcast on 30 August, he said there was "an inherent conflict" in Spotify licensing Ringer shows to Netflix on a non-exclusive basis, given that programmes such as his review films that could appear on the streamer. He stressed the decision was not his own, saying "we're working within that reality."

The Netflix licensing deal was announced in October 2025, while Spotify has owned The Ringer since acquiring it from Simmons in a $250 million deal in 2020; Fennessey has worked for the company since its 2016 launch. Elsewhere in the interview, alongside co-host Amanda Dobbins, he also voiced discomfort with Simmons' podcast being sponsored by ChatGPT and with segments in which Simmons asks the chatbot to imagine what the late critic Roger Ebert, who died in 2013, might have thought of recent films. Fennessey said he had told Simmons directly that he disliked the bits, calling them something he "wouldn't want done" for himself after death.