Anchor launches Sponsorships for US podcasters

Anchor launched Sponsorships yesterday. The company says: “Anchor Sponsorships gets podcasters paid by matching them with sponsors and helping them easily create custom advertisements for their shows. It’s a new world for podcast advertising, and anyone can be part of it.” - not quite “anyone”, since the feature is currently limited only to US podcasters. Sponsorships are host-read, and based on a cost-per-thousand basis based on plays. Anchor takes 30%.

• Anchor also claims in the article that the company powers 40% of new podcasts.

Global, the UK broadcaster, has added 1,500 third-party podcasts to its popular Global Player and radio apps (iOS only for now). Here’s how they’re promoting it, and more details from Digiday. The podcasts added come from variety of publishers, including the BBC and Serial; and also contains some 'Global Original’ podcasts, made by the company. Global also owns DAX, a programmatic audio ad platform, in the UK, US and Canada.

Acast have launched personalised podcast ads, working with AMillionAds, a UK company that produces over 20,000 versions of ads using external data like location, time of day, and device details. The first ad, for iD Mobile, calls out different cities based on where the listener is, different deals depending on what they’ve heard before, different messaging depending on when they’re listening and different podcast names based on what show the listener is hearing. (Watch - from Next Radio in 2016, Sam Crowther from AMillionAds gave an overview of how the technology works.)

Reflecting planned expansion at the company, the owner of Podcast Websites is now known as Rebel Base Media, with Podcast Websites making up one product within a suite of platforms created to help podcasters grow their audience and their audio influence. Today, they announced a new “growth-orientated” podcast hosting platform, Captivate·FM. The service is open for pre-registration in preparation for launch in January 2019.

Media lawyer David Oxenford covers the recent news of a prominent podcaster being sued for copyright infringement by a set of record companies. Oxenford says: “The bottom line – don’t use music in podcasts without getting permission.”

In Baltimore, the Maryland Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in Adnan Syed’s case, the subject of the Serial and Undisclosed podcasts.

A new microphone might be on the way from RØDE - the PodMic appears in the company’s video for their Rødecaster Pro.

Apple Podcast Chart manipulation is the focus of the next episode, due tomorrow, of Darknet Diaries. It’s “all about the people who are gaming the Apple Podcast charts. I called up six of the promoters, and talked with them, and got pictures from them, and so much more,” says the podcast’s producer, Jack Rhysider.

• Meanwhile, The Verge covers Apple Podcast Chart manipulation, mainly sourced from a story in Podnews from Oct 22.

Libsyn have unveiled a new podcast directory, showcasing Libsyn-hosted podcasts.

Job: the Washington Post is looking for an Audio Associate Producer.

10 scary podcasts to listen to in the dark (The Verge)

We Listened To A Lot Of Podcasts In 2018. Here Are 31 We Loved. (HuffPost)