Quick Hits: SCA and original podcasts. In-car audio. Inside Apple HomePod.

Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web:

SCA’s big plans for original podcasts: Southern Cross Austereo CEO Grant Blackley gave an interview about how the media company is approaching podcasts. “What we are establishing is a premium, original-first model for podcasting,” he said. Blackley said he expects original shows to be contributing significant profits to SCA by 2021. Across Australia, he projected that original shows currently gross $5 million in revenue.

In-car audio on the rise: TechCrunch explored the early stages of the battle for control over drivers’ ears. With Sirius XM’s acquisition of Pandora as a starting point, the feature covers some of the big numbers already making in-car audio a hot topic. And the current predictions for a future of self-driving cars will further increase the value of vehicle entertainment.

Apple HomePod engineering lesson: If you’re intrigued by the audio engineering of the HomePod, Apple’s team has published a blog post about the machine learning that makes the smart speaker sound so good in so many situations and how its Siri voice assistant works on the device. Be forewarned: you may need a degree in advanced algebra to fully process the post.

Anna Washenko