![]() ![]() The company was valued at $100 million in July 2019. was enough to pressure podcast network Wondery to part ways with Incongruity. The talks valued Wondery at over $300 million, according to the publication. Creator and Host for the highly popular, award winning True-crime Podcast. The Wall Street Journal reported on December 2 that Amazon was in talks to buy the podcast maker. The Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday that Lopez will leave Wondery after the deal closes and the company’s Chief Operating Officer Jen Sargent will take over the leadership team. “When the deal closes, nothing will change for listeners, and they’ll continue to be able to access Wondery podcasts through a variety of providers,” Amazon said in a statement.Įarlier in 2020, Wondery CEO Chief Executive Hernan Lopez was charged with wire fraud and money laundering alongside two former FOX TV executives. A Wondery spokesperson did not return a request for comment.Īmazon noted in its announcement of the deal that Wondery’s podcasts would continue to be available on platforms outside of Amazon Music. It is unclear how the deal could impact future film and television adaptations of Wondery’s podcasts. Amazon has the third-largest music service by subscriptions, behind Spotify and Apple Music, and has drawn an older listening base across the U.S., in part through the help of its Prime subscription service and Echo speakers.The Film Industry Lost Some Titans This Year - What Happens Now? Wondery is the largest independent podcast studio network with a monthly audience of over 8 million people. While Amazon is joining a competitive field, executives have said the service can tack differently from rivals - as it has with music streaming - and bring in new podcast listeners, particularly through its voice-activated home speakers. The tech giant has some catching up to do with Apple Inc.'s Apple Podcasts, where most podcast listeners tune in free, and Spotify, which has been investing hundreds of millions of dollars in the format and sparked an arms race for programming and talent. Wondery generates revenue from advertising and licensing fees as well as from optioning the rights to its podcasts to media companies like AT&T Inc.'s WarnerMedia and Walt Disney Co.Īmazon Music moved into podcasting in September, looking to draw new listeners with 70,000 titles to start, including new original, exclusive shows hosted by DJ Khaled, Becky G, Will Smith and Dan Patrick. Like many of its peers, Wondery has benefited from the growth of podcasting among listeners and advertisers. Publishers ahead of Wondery included NPR, iHeartMedia Inc. ![]() in September, according to audio analytics firm Podtrac, with more than 60 million downloads and streams of its shows. Wondery, which is known for true-crime podcasts like "Doctor Death," "Dirty John" and "Over My Dead Body," was the sixth most-popular podcast publisher in the U.S. in July said it would acquire Serial Productions, maker of the hit podcast "Serial," in a deal that could be worth as much as $50 million depending on milestones and performance metrics, the Journal reported. Spotify Technology SA bought Gimlet Media, a maker of narrative podcasts, in 2019 for more than $200 million. ![]() Major players in the tech and media sectors have acquired several other podcast startups in recent years. Follow Stolen Hearts on Amazon Music of wherever you get your podcasts. ad revenue from podcasts, meanwhile, rose an estimated 48% to $708.1 million last year, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, and is projected to exceed $1 billion by 2021. On Wonderys new weekly series, join co-hosts Scaachi Koul and Sarah Hagi as. Podcasting as a whole is attracting over 100 million monthly active listeners, according to Edison Research. Once the domain for super-niche fare, true-crime content and pop-culture dissections, the format has exploded in recent years as a destination for high-profile entertainment and political programming. Wondery's investors include venture-capital firms such as Waverley Capital, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Greycroft Partners and Advancit Capital.Īmazon's foray coincides with a growth spurt for the small but rapidly expanding podcasting industry. The deal talks are continuing and negotiations could still fall apart, the people said.Ĭlosely held Wondery is the last large, independent podcaster on the market - and could present the final opportunity for a major tech or media giant to buy its way into the exploding field. The company is on track to increase revenue to more than $40 million this year, according one person familiar with the matter, with about 75% of that coming from advertising and the rest from licensing to TV, to subscription services like Audible and Stitcher Premium and to Wondery's own premium subscription service, which launched this summer. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |