SiriusXM Acquires Stitcher for $325 Million
The satellite radio company is making a bigger move into the podcast realm
Wednesday, July 15, 2020 by Tatiora | Discussion: Movies & TV & Books
Are you a fan of podcasts?
On Monday, the satellite radio company SiriusXM announced that it reached a deal to acquire Stitcher from E.W. Scripps to the tune of $325 million. Stitcher is a pioneer in podcasting that provides a popular one-stop platform for creating, monetizing, and distributing podcasts to listen via its app and other platforms.
Stitcher brings its own mobile listening app (which was acquired for $4.5 million in 2016) to the table. It also operates the Midroll Media network for podcast advertising (acquired for $55 million in 2015). Stitcher's original podcasts run on multiple content networks as well.
SiriusXM already purchased another podcast management platform called Simplecast last month, and with this latest acquisition it has become clear that they intend to devote quite a lot of their resources and efforts to podcasting. This deal will move thousands of podcasts to SiriusXM, including popular titles like Freakonomics Radio, Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, LeVar Burton Reads, and many more.
In a press statement released Monday, SiriusXM CEO Jim Meyer said, "The addition of Stitcher is an important next step as we continue to develop and strengthen our offering in the fast-growing podcasting market. With Stitcher, we will expand our digital audio advertising presence and look to generate new ways for creators to find and connect with their audiences. Stitcher has a talented team with deep experience in the podcast space, and we look forward to working with them to better meet the needs of creators, advertisers, and listeners."
The company boasts that combining Stitcher with their already robust satellite radio audience and Pandora (which they acquired in 2018), they will have "the largest addressable audience" in the United States for digital audio.
What are some of your favorite podcasts? Do you have a podcast of your own? Share with us in the comments!
Please login to comment and/or vote for this skin.
Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
- Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums and downloading skins.
- Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
- Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
- It's simple, and FREE!