SiriusXM 'to buy Stitcher'

• Sirius XM is in advanced talks to buy Stitcher. SiriusXM owns Pandora, a US-only music service and podcast app), AdsWizz, a programmatic audio ads technology company, and Simplecast, a podcast host and analytics service, along with the US satellite radio service. Stitcher encompasses Midroll, a podcast advertising company selling ads for 350 shows, podcast production networks Stitcher Podcasts and Earwolf which make 50 shows, and a podcast app.

  • Stitcher is currently owned by EW Scripps, who also own Omny Studio and Triton Digital - their sale leaves Scripps without its own podcast app and podcast networks, though Triton Digital and Omny Studio offer some monetisation tools for podcasters.
  • The purchase price for Stitcher is said to be US$300m. Scripps bought Stitcher in 2016 for $4.5m, and then combined it with Midroll Media, the podcast-advertising company it had acquired the year before for $50m. Stitcher made $17.1 in revenue last quarter.

• Michael Robertson, a serial entrepreneur, suggests that Spotify’s deal with Joe Rogan could be illegal, citing a clause in US copyright law that prohibits exclusive digital audio licensing deals longer than twelve months.

• The British Podcast Awards will be announced in a virtual ceremony on their website this Saturday at 7.30pm UK time. The show will be hosted by BBC Radio 1's Clara Amfo, with the help of BBC 6Music’s Rhianna Dhillon alongside the biggest names in broadcasting and podcasting.

  
  Aug 25 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• PodInstall has been chosen by Eurosport and 20 Minutes. The technology is a PWA - working like a mobile app, but available via the web. The two companies have used PodInstall to produce a mobile experience for their podcast network.

• Amaeya Media have rebranded. The largest podcast network in the UAE is celebrating more than 400 episodes, and over 8,000 minutes of audio. (We’re celebrating them becoming the latest supporter of Podnews: thank you!)

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 25 2023

• Aureal touts itself as a recording app and free podcast host that distributes your podcast to major platforms. It promises you get paid, too, but it’s something to do with the blockchain and apparently harnesses “the power of Distributed Ledger Technology to empower your content value and optimize the revenue generation, with the use of Interplanetary File System”. The IPFS is a method of hosting files in a peer-to-peer network which could mean Aureal pays no bandwidth costs, though it appears to be incompatible with podcast apps.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 25 2023

• MusicAlly, a music industry publication, rounds-up the music industry’s interest in podcasting

• The Zoom H8 is a new portable ‘app-driven’ audio recorder, which will ship in August.

• In Current, a top engineer explains NPR’s signature sound. Not the random bits of jazz, but the sound of the microphone (and how they use it). (Thanks, Harry O!)

• Podcast Festival is promoting its next event, “Voices of the world” on Jul 15. It promises global podcasters and experts from the four corners of the world, talking about podcasting in their countries, the different cultural tendencies and business models.

Tips and tricks - with Podcorn

• Evo Terra returns from a break, highlighting how you can use waveformless audio editing
• Best practices for sharing podcasts on social media (Andréa Jones)

Podcast News

First look: CNN has launched Great Big Story, a new weekly podcast from CNN’s global media company, Great Big Story, which highlights the people, places and things that change the way we see the world – and each of our individual roles within it.

Y Diflaniad is claimed to be the first true crime story in Welsh, looking at a 1953 case in the village of Cwmdu in the Tywi Valley.

You know how beautiful Hollywood homes seem to look on TV? Decorating the Set: From Holly wood to Your Home with Beth Kushnick is a new podcast from a set decorator responsible for TV shows and movies, helping you get that look too.

Noticed that the media seems to interview the same people about big issues? What if you don’t want to hear from public health experts, politicians or economists? The Finch Podcast is a student-led media group that dissects complex issues with a multidisciplinary approach: leading them to conversations with Iron Chef judges, CDC epidemiologists, Harvard business women, and Southern sheriffs.

Pindrop, a kind-of-travel podcast from TED about the world’s most surprising and imaginative ideas, has already focused on a radio station in Bangkok that brings everyone together. This time: Oberammergau, a town in the German Alps which performs a play every ten years as thanks to God for sparing its inhabitants from the bubonic plague. As the pandemic forces this year’s to be postponed, some people want some problematic parts of the performance to be updated.