Radio/Podcast merger in Canada: Rogers Media acquires Pacific Content
In a merger of traditional broadcast and new media, Canadian radio/TV/magazine company Rogers Media is buying specialty podcast company Pacific Content. Continue Reading
Entercom adopts Headliner social video app
Social video creation app Headliner announces today that it has partnered with Entercom, the second-largest commercial radio group in the U.S. It is an enterprise-wide agreement that enables all Entercom stations to build social-ready videos which promote their on-demand audio. Continue Reading
iHeartMedia completes restructuring, enters new chapter
iHeartMedia announced today that its bankruptcy, debt restructuring, and separation from Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings is complete. This significant milestone begins a new chapter in the history of the largest U.S. commercial radio group. Continue Reading
Spotify: Dramatically revolutionize podcast advertising (earnings follow-up)
Spotify’s recent quarterly investor call was entirely a Q&A affair. Accordingly, the call provided a rich record of responses from CEO Daniel Ek and CFO Barry McCarthy about podcasting. Continue Reading
WARC: Podcast share of all audio ad spend projected to 4.5% in 2020
In the podcast portion of the WARC Global Ad Trends April 2019 report, one projection has the share of all audio advertising spend rising to 4.5% in 2020, from 1.9% last year. The report combines research from PwC, Edison Research,… Continue Reading
Steve Goldstein: New Medium, Old Strategy – The Popularity of “Host-Read” Ads Explained
by Steve Goldstein
Host-read sponsor endorsements are common in podcasting, which owes its success in large part to leveraging the relationship between hosts and listeners. In this guest column, Steve Goldstein takes a fascinating trip through the history of live reads, including pioneer Paul Harvey who created the original playbook. Continue Reading
Sirius XM: “Never lose a listener” (earnings follow-up)
We covered the Sirius XM earnings report last week. Here, a deeper drive in Jim Meyer’s remarks about the Pandora merger and innovations in the car. “Bar none, the leader” On the April 24th Q1 2019 Earnings call for SiriusXM,… Continue Reading
Sales veteran Sue McNamara takes EVP role at PodcastOne
Sue McNamara has joined PodcastOne as EVP Sales Eastern Division, the company announced today. She comes from Interep, CBS Corp., and US Total Traffic Network, and has been honored multiple times on Radio Ink’s Most Influential Women in Radio list and The American Registry’s list of the Top 1% of America’s Most Honored Professionals. Continue Reading
More podcast networks reportedly exit Luminary
The drumbeat of Luminary exits reportedly continued over the weekend. Nick Quah, Hot Pod creator and author, cites unnamed sources reporting that podcast app and sales company Stitcher and PRX have joined the exodus. Podnews reports that iHeartRadio is also out. Continue Reading
Spotify: 100M subscribers, 217M total monthly users, emphasis on podcasting (earnings call)
Round numbers might be arbitrary, but that doesn’t stop this from being a milestone day for Spotify: Spotify now has 100-million subscribers. Combined with the free-listening ad-supported part of Spotify, total monthly active users (MAUs) sits at 217-million. Continue Reading
James Cridland’s International Radio Trends: Global’s acquisitions; pirate DAB
by James Cridland
James Cridland’s International Radio Trends is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: Global closes its acquisition of three outdoor advertising companies. Pirate DAB has arrived. Much more. Continue Reading
Whooshkaa enables podcast skills in Alexa
Australian podcast company Whooshkaa starts the week with a new tech development that enables its hosted podcasts to become Alexa skills. That means that the podcast can be played through an Alexa device by invoking the show name rather than accessing TuneIn, which is Alexa’s standard podcast platform. Continue Reading