In a joint announcement this morning, Spotify and media giant Warner Bros. announced a distribution and sales agreement which will see podcasts in the Warner Bros Discovery unit hosted and monetized in Spotify’s technology and sales systems.
Warner Bros Discovery is a sprawling media empire which include many well known content brands: Discovery Channel, discovery+, CNN, DC, Eurosport, HBO, HGTV, Food Network, OWN, Investigation Discovery, TLC, Magnolia Network, TNT, TBS, truTV, Travel Channel, Max, MotorTrend, Animal Planet, Science Channel, Warner Bros. Film Group, Warner Bros. Television Group, Warner Bros. Games, New Line Cinema, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Turner Classic Movies, Discovery en Español, Hogar de HGTV and others.
The announcement does not clarify whether the agreement includes all of Discovery’s podcasts in all the groups, or some of them. (We have asked.) But the podcast titles mentioned include CNN’s All There Is with Anderson Cooper, CNN’s Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s The Assignment with Audie Cornish, HBO’s The Official Game of Thrones Podcast: House of the Dragon, HBO’s Succession Podcast, TCM’s The Plot Thickens, WBD Sports’ The Steam Room.
Spotify’s SPAN (Spotify Audience Network) provides the sales infrastructure for this arrangement. An audio-first marketplace, it operates in over a dozen markets across North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia. SPAN has grown in scale and effectiveness over the last 12 months. Spotify claims a 70% rise in the number of opt-in publishers, and a 45% rise in participating advertisers.
