All forms of broadcast.
In the company’s Q4 earnings call last week, iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman and COO/CFO Rich Bressler emphasized podcasting and recent digital audio acquisitions, and touched on a new view of international opportunity for iHeart. Click of tap through for details and quotes. Continue Reading
Digital audio was emphasized numerously in the Q4 earnings call of Cumulus Media, supported by a slew of numbers. Podcasting is up in every way for the company, and Cumulus is not particularly acquisition-minded. Click through for details and quotes. Continue Reading
James Cridland returns with a richly informative newsletter about radio around the world. The decline of top 40. Live radio on smartphones. A song list from 1996. Much more. Continue Reading
Southern Cross Austereo (SCA), the large commercial radio group in Australia, is making a splashy launch of LiSTNR, a new listening app that brings together the network’s radio content, news, music streaming channels (non-interactive), and podcasts. Click through for details. Continue Reading
UK-centered media and technology company Global has activated its investment arm, Honeycomb Investments LTD, to acquire 8.8% of iHeartMedia, the largest American commercial radio group and top podcast publisher. Remembering that Liberty also owns a stake in iHM, we speculate a brewing battle of buyers, as listener reach and advertising pull are increasingly parts of a cross-category landscape. Continue Reading
Podcast Radio, the UK DAB+ venture which programs podcasts 24/7, has notified us of a new and original fiction podcast starring former BBC announcer Patrick Muirhead. The show is described as “a series of fictional mystery stories set in the remote tropical island paradise of Seychelles where [Muirhead] now lives.” It is the second original podcast produced by Podcast Radio. Continue Reading
Triton Digital is announcing today that Canada’s largest private, western-based broadcast group, The Jim Pattison Broadcast Group, has become a Triton client for management, measurement, and monetization of its AM/FM online streams. The Pattison Group operates 45 FM stations and three AMs, along with three conventional TV stations and 17 online new portals in 28 markets. In all that there is a growing portfolio of podcasts. Continue Reading
A loose organization of 200 public media professionals, including some of NPR’s most illumined leaders, has been organized by public radio veteran Celeste Headlee. A months-long collaborative effort to remedy institutional racism is brought into public view today. It is a 6,500-word roadmap for structural corrections in public media related to diversity, equality, and the very conception of journalism. Continue Reading
The main story in this week’s newsletter from James Cridland is Spotify’s new “Show” product — a couple of new entries are reviewed. Also, new traditional radio station launches in the UK and Australia. Then, more radio news and links to other sources. One of the meatiest columns in this series. Continue Reading
A few interesting notes related to podcasting from Cumulus Media in the company’s Q3 earnings report. Cumulus owns Westwood One and the Westwood One Podcast Network, although neither entity was mentioned by name in the earnings call remarks by CEO Mary Berner and CFO Frank Lopez-Balboa. Podcasting provided a bulward during trouble performance of streaming and local digital marketing. Continue Reading
Podcast Radio, the all-digital, all-podcast radio station heard in London, Surrey, Manchester, and Glasgow, has partnered with Curiouscast, the Canadian podcast network and part of the Corus Entertainment Network. A selection of Curiouscast episodes will be inserted into Podcast Radio’s rotation. U.S. listeners can hear Podcast Radio, too. Continue Reading
In what is probably good news for AM/FM radio, listening moved back into the car in Q3, following the Q2 pandemical disruption of commuting. And there’s good news for podcasting too. Continue Reading