It was announced this week that shows from Cumulus Podcast Network and Westwood One will begin being seen on Rumble, the digital video platform most commonly associated with conservative political commentary.

For a company looking to grow its user base and shed its image as a niche platform, this might seem like a step in the right direction.

But is it?

Rumble has clearly carved out a space for itself by being the alternative to YouTube, particularly for content creators who feel they’ve been unfairly demonetized, silenced, or shadowbanned by Big Tech. And there’s no arguing the platform is needed.

When platforms become monoliths, alternatives must exist. Rumble serves a legitimate function in the digital ecosystem, and it deserves credit for building a viable infrastructure that supports live streaming, video hosting, and monetization tools.

Still, it’s worth asking—is Rumble’s only long-term purpose to be the safety net for conservative political content?

Because while there is certainly other content available on the platform — sports shows, comedy, video game streamers, and general pop culture commentary — perception is reality. And the perception of Rumble is that it’s little more than a YouTube for people who rant about “The Deep State” and vaccines while promoting gold investments, companies that utilize the term “Patriot” somewhere in the title, and testosterone supplements.

Take this screenshot as an example.

That’s not to say that there isn’t plenty of other content on the platform, but this is what Rumble has “picked” to display on the home screen. Three — for lack of a better term — Trump-centric stories and a video game streamer who was accused of sexual misconduct with a minor. That isn’t exactly dispelling any notions that it isn’t an “alternative” — quotes used intentionally — to YouTube.

Add in that podcasts like the Shawn Ryan Show or a program like The Mark Levin Show will soon be prominently featured, and you can see how an observer might think it’s still just where conservatives gather, making it the Truth Social or Parler of the digital video world.

Let’s be clear: there’s nothing inherently wrong with conservative political content, or a platform that hosts it. I believe in the mission of Rumble. I believe that YouTube can absolutely be too overreaching, and could use competition to keep it from becoming a digital tyrant.

But if Rumble’s goal is to become a true rival to YouTube, or even Twitch, it needs a strategy that broadens —not just technically, but perceptually.

A platform’s image shapes its growth. Twitch is for gamers and live streamers. YouTube is for everything from vlogs to news to DIY. TikTok is where viral trends are born. Rumble? To most, it’s where people go when they’ve been kicked off YouTube for telling the “truth” about the 2020 election.

If Rumble wants to be more than that, partnerships like the one with Cumulus are good, but the horizons need expanding. It’s the kind of move that can start nudging Rumble out of its political silo. But one partnership doesn’t fix perception, and it certainly doesn’t diversify a user base overnight.

It’s easy to see how Rumble got here. The need for a free speech-focused video platform has never been louder, and the audience Rumble catered to early on was starved for a space that didn’t come with the risk of deletion for stepping out of Silicon Valley’s comfort zone. Rumble leaned into that moment. Hard.

But now, it may be boxed in by the very identity that helped it rise.

To be fair, Rumble isn’t trying to be YouTube Lite. Its CEO — Chris Pavlovski — has stated that the platform is for all creators. It’s invested in sports programming, it’s signed exclusive deals with a handful of streamers, and it’s tried to market itself as a free-speech platform for all viewpoints.

Yet if your friends or colleagues were looking to launch a comedy channel or a food vlog, would Rumble even enter the conversation?

Therein lies the challenge. The broader public doesn’t associate Rumble with apolitical content—or even content that’s conservative but entertaining and insightful, rather than bombastic and incendiary. Instead, Rumble is the place for the banned, the controversial, and the demonetized. Again, that content has an audience. But if Rumble’s only audience is the one looking for that kind of material, it limits what the platform can ever become.

Perception is reality. And Rumble’s perception is that it’s a political platform, not a cultural one. Until that changes, the odds of becoming a true digital video juggernaut are slim.

So as these new Westwood One and Cumulus Podcast Network shows roll out, Rumble should be asking itself: is this the first of many mainstream moves that help reposition the platform? Or is this just an attempt to make the platform a little more palatable to advertisers and a few more mainstream partners—without changing the core experience for users?

Rumble is needed. That much is obvious. It fills a hole in the digital media world, and its existence challenges the dominance of platforms that have grown a little too comfortable. But if its purpose is only to serve as the digital refuge for those who feel abandoned by YouTube, then that’s all it will ever be. And that might be enough—for now. But it won’t be enough to truly compete.

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