The Guardian re-sign global podcast contract with Acast

Acast and the Guardian have announced they will continue their successful commercial relationship as the publisher re-signs a deal with Acast, the world’s largest independent podcast company. Acast and The Guardian have worked together since 2017, with the latter producing some of the world’s most popular news and lifestyle podcasts, including Today in Focus, Football Weekly, Comfort Eating with Grace Dent, and Politics Weekly UK.

More recently, The Guardian launched the Black Box series - a six-part audio documentary series that takes a captivating look at humanity’s collision with AI.

The agreement between Acast and the Guardian covers all of Acast’s markets, including the US, the UK, Australia, and Canada, offering breadth of knowledge, comprehension of the nuances of each market, and podcasting growth expertise. Acast stands out as the only podcast company with a dedicated team focused on Publishers, offering a wealth of knowledge and a deep understanding of the unique strengths and challenges that traditional news partners encounter in the audio landscape.

Robert Abel, Head of Audio Business & Strategy, Guardian News & Media says: “The Guardian’s long-standing relationship with Acast offers expertise and insight on a global scale. This is particularly important to us, because our dedicated audience of Guardian podcast listeners comes from all over the world. In fact, even though our UK podcast audience is one of the biggest, less than half of our listeners come from this country, which really sets us apart from most other UK podcast publishers. The Guardian’s award-winning portfolio gives brands the opportunity to connect directly with listeners across current affairs, politics, sport, culture, lifestyle and more.”

Commercially, the Guardian and Acast have worked on some standout campaigns together. Recently, Grace Dent was part of Acast and EuroMillions’ successful original podcast series ‘Rich Beyond My Wildest Dreams’, and Acast secured Grace a long-term partnership with Airbnb. Football Weekly and the Department for Education worked together across their ‘Get Into Teaching’ campaign, producing a sponsored story focused on personal stories from Football Weekly hosts about their memories of education.

The Guardian is also a founding member of the Publishers in Podcasting consortium, established by Acast in 2023. This cross-publisher consortium brings together leaders from the UK’s biggest publishers to discuss the challenges and opportunities affecting the podcast industry and audio journalism.

‘The Guardian and Acast is more than a commercial match,’ explains Alexandra Fuller, Head of Publishers, Acast UK - ‘it’s a combination of shared values, podcasting expertise, and a desire to share some of the very best journalism with a global audience of podcast listeners. The extension of our partnership is a testament to the brilliant work both the commercial team at The Guardian and our team at Acast have achieved over the past several years, and we look forward to continuing to support them for many years to come.’