PodcastOne and Empire Media Group sign multi-year partnership

PodcastOne, a leading podcast platform and a subsidiary of LiveXLive Media (NASDAQ: LIVX) (“LiveXLive”), announced today that it has signed a multi-year year partnership with Empire Media Group (“EMG”) and its Chairman and CEO Dylan Howard, the Webby Award-winning Executive Producer, Writer, and Director of podcasts Fatal Voyage: The Mysterious Death of Natalie Wood and Epstein: Devil in the Darkness, to produce a slate of original scripted and non-scripted podcast and vodcast series.

The deal will include EMG developing multiple projects including at least six limited series and eight weekly shows. Several programs are currently in production and will debut in the coming weeks.

Series greenlights include:

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  The Firm: Blood, Lies & Royal Succession, a multi-part historical non-scripted drama that will take listeners behind the British royal family’s gilded gates and imposing palace façades into the very heart of the most famous family, The House of Windsor, to expose the scandals and dramas in the richest bloodlines in the world.

• A second investigative podcast will focus on the Church of Scientology. Evoking the drama and tension of a true crime thriller, this unprecedented and extensive new 12-part limited series audio investigation will break new ground on the controversial religion and the whereabouts of its high priestess, who vanished 14 years ago, will be hosted and reported by famed investigator Tony Ortega.

• My Favorite Scandal, a weekly series where nothing is NSFW when you work at one of the nation’s leading tabloid magazines. Over decades covering the scandals and sins of the A-list, this crew has seen it all – and written about it. But so often, the most fascinating stories never made it to the printed page. Like that time when one of us hopped on stage at a West Virginia strip club to get the story of a celebrity’s secret surrogate. Or, that time when Charlie Sheen peed in a cup for a drug test on film. (For tabloid journos, that’s #winning.) Now, for the first time, hear the true stories behind some of the world’s biggest scandals – stories even more jaw-dropping than those scandals themselves – as the tabloid world’s most famous and feared veterans finally tell all.

• In You’re Fired, a weekly series, find out what really happens when the axe falls in the media, Hollywood, politics, television, or off-stage? Some of the biggest names in America reveal the remarkable true tales of how they discovered they were getting the heave-ho, when the guillotine dropped, how they took the news and how they bounced back.

Further programming and series hosts will be announced at a later date.

“Partnering with the incredible team at PodcastOne highlights the influence of our investigative reporting on the topics of Hollywood, entertainment, true crime, current affairs, and unsolved mysteries. We are delighted to bring decades of experience in storytelling to life with trusted reporting and innovative, fresh new programming concepts,” said Dylan Howard, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of EMG. “This dynamic partnership will directly leverage the world-class reporting of our titles — including RadarOnline.com™, OKmagazine.com™, Front Page Detectives™ and The Royal Observer™ — as well as our world-class editors and journalists to create the most authoritative programming in each category.”

Howard — described by The Hollywood Reporter as “an iTunes phenomenon” — was the Executive Producer of Fatal Voyage: The Mysterious Death of Natalie Wood, which has racked up more than 10 million downloads and 50 million media impressions worldwide. That series was one of Apple Podcasts’ Most Downloaded New Shows of 2018 and was named a 2019 Webby Best Series honoree by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Dr. Phil McGraw said, “You don’t want to let the sun set before you start listening to this because it is intriguing.” Meanwhile, Rolling Stone called it “a dramatic whodunit.”

Kit Gray, President of PodcastOne, added, “PodcastOne is thrilled to build our relationship with the Empire Media Group team on their upcoming podcasts. Dylan Howard and Melissa Cronin have a proven track record of success in the space, and we are proud to join forces on their exciting new slate of shows. The chance to create new consumer experiences together with some of the world’s most admired brands is a tremendous opportunity. We’re very proud to embark on this exciting venture with our new partner.”

PodcastOne’s slate of programming includes some of the most-listened-to podcasts of the moment, with more than 2.25 billion downloads annually, including The Adam Carolla Show, Off the Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe, The Jordan Harbinger Show and The LADYGANG, as well as top rated true crime programming including A&E’s Cold Case, REELZ TV’s Autopsy, Court Junkie, First Degree, American Nightmare and Bad Bad Thing from the creator of the hit Netflix show Evil Genius. PodcastOnes is celebrating its one year anniversary with LiveXLive. Total social media of all PodcastOne talent is now over 280 million. PodcastOne content is available on PodcastOne, Apple, Spotify, Facebook and wherever podcasts are heard.

According to a study released earlier this year by Edison Research approximately 80 million Americans – 28% of the U.S. 12+ population – are now weekly podcast listeners. This represents a 17% increase over 2020. In addition, the overall monthly podcast listening audience is now more diverse than ever: 57% of monthly podcast listeners are white; 16%, Latino; 13%, African American; 4%, Asian; and 10% of other backgrounds. 62% of the U.S. 12+ population, around 176 million people, are now weekly online audio listeners – an all-time high for this category.