Imagine Entertainment, founded by Brian Glazer and Ron Howard, has struck an exclusive co-production distribution with iHeartMedia, bringing the TV/film company into podcasting. Ad sales and monetization are not mentioned in the announcement we received from iHeart.
The partnership will collaborate to launch six new series over the next two years distributed through the iHeartPodcast Network.
This development, while modestly scaled in projected two-year output, is a recognition of podcasting’s maturation as a media category. Imagine Entertainment is known throughout the world for innumerable movies including A Beautiful Mind, Rush, American Gangster, The Da Vinci Code, Apollo 13, 8 Mile, Parenthood, and many others. The company has an active production schedule of upcoming movies and TV shows, and today’s announcement does not include mention of new executive staff to lead the venture on Imagine’s side.
The iHeartPodcast Network produces 619 active shows according to Podtrac, and they are served 337-million times to an audience of 33-million.
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