SiriusXM

NAD Files Lawsuit Against SiriusXM, Stitcher, and Pandora for Lack of Transcripts

~ jen

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) posted a release titled: “Lawsuit Challenges Inaccessibility of Major Podcast Platforms.” From the release:

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) have filed a lawsuit against three major providers of podcasts, SiriusXM, Stitcher, and Pandora, to end their exclusion of deaf and hard of hearing Americans from each company’s extensive podcast streaming service.

Sirius XM bills itself as the “new destination for original, exclusive, and popular podcasts,” providing customers access to a slate of both original and third-party podcast content, including exclusive access to podcasts produced by Marvel Entertainment.

Stitcher ranked #1 in Triton Digital’s Report of top Podcast Networks for August 2021, with 451 active original podcast. Likewise, Pandora’s podcast service offers users access to hundreds of thousands of podcast episodes. Yet none of these multimillion-dollar companies provides transcripts for the plethora of podcasts available on their popular mobile applications.

Because Defendants do not make transcripts or captions available for any of the podcasts offered on their platforms, more than 48 million deaf and hard of hearing Americans are denied full and equal enjoyment of the content they offer hearing users. These failures to provide equal access violate the Americans with Disabilities Act as well as state and local New York law.

The NAD and five deaf Americans who wish to use each of Defendants’ podcast services but are excluded from doing so brought this action to end SiriusXM’s, Stitchers, and Pandora’s discriminatory business practices.

Howard A. Rosenbaum, CEO of NAD, said, “Podcasts are the latest form of entertainment, and it is imperative that deaf and hard of hearing people not be left behind. SiriusXM, Stitcher, and Pandora have a duty under federal, state, and city laws to ensure their podcasts are fully accessible.”

Plaintiff Mei Nishimoto said, “I want all podcasts to be accessible for myself, because I love to learn, and as a Deaf parent with a school-aged child, I need to screen what is appropriate for her age and interests, and advance her education.”

Plaintiff Dr. Amber Martin said, “Access to information and entertainment is as interesting and important to deaf and hard of hearing people as it is to others. There have been many times when someone told me about something they heard on a podcast that sparked my interest but there was no transcript. It’s disappointing not to be able to participate in the conversations with friends, but especially frustrating to know that I’m locked out of a lot of information I’d like to have.”

Plaintiff Jamie Munro said, “Podcasts are now ubiquitous and serves as a wealth of information to everyone, except the deaf community. We cannot be excluded again and must have full access to knowledge that is already readily available to everyone else.”

Plaintiff Rebecca Alexander stated, “Requesting accommodations is not asking to be given information out of privilege. Having equal access to information, including from podcasts, is a fundamental civil right. I am also concerned about being precluded from a platform that has important commentary from people, myself included, because of inaccessibility.”

DRA staff attorney Emily Seelenfreund said, “SiriusXM, Stitcher and Pandora’s complete failure to consider access for individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing is an embarrassment and an abject violation of federal and local disability law.

SiriusXM Signs Exclusive Multi-Year Agreement with Audiochuck

~ jen

SiriusXM announced an agreement with media and podcast company Audiochuck and its founder Ashley Flowers that gives SiriusXM exclusivity to ad sales for Crime Junkie – one of the country’s top-ranked podcasts – along with all the shows in the Audiochuck network, which includes top rated Anatomy of a Murder, CounterClock, and Park Predators. Audiochuck, the independent media and podcast production studio, has become the dominant network behind some of the most popular podcasts.

SXM Media has exclusive global ad sales rights for Audiochuck podcasts. Access for brands and marketers is only available through the advertising and sales arm of SiriusXM, Stitcher and Pandora.

The agreement calls for Stitcher, the Triton-ranked #1 podcast company and SiriusXM subsidiary, to distribute all Audiochuck content across all podcast platforms. Listeners can continue to listen and subscribe to Audiochuck podcasts on Stitcher, the SXM App, Pandora, and all major podcast listening platforms.

“I’m incredibly excited to work with SiriusXM,” said Ashley Flowers, Founder and CEO of Audiochuck. “Since day one our mission has been creating top-of-the-line content that drives advocacy and change and I believe working with such an established multi-platform company will allow us to do bigger, better things and reach even more people with the important stories we want to tell.”

As part of the new relationship, Audiochuck, SiriusXM, Pandora, and Stitcher plan to collaborate in the development of additional content accessible across multiple platforms.

“Ashley and the team at Audiochuck have shown that great passion and great storytelling together can create a meaningful business and platform for important stories that may not otherwise be told. We are committed to supporting them as they provide critical true crime storytelling that not only informs listeners, but also drives social change,” said Scott Greenstein, President and Chief Content Officer, SiriusXM. “For Ashley and other innovators in podcasting, SiriusXM provides a home to do the best work of their careers. With three audio platforms as marketing vehicles that can reach the largest and most diverse audiences possible, they can serve their most loyal fans and create new ones.”

“Joining with SiriusXM is an important next step for our long-term vision at Audiochuck,” said Kevin Mills, President of Audiochuck. “We intend to use our industry-leading content as a basis to innovate across platforms. We look forward to this collaboration to further our mission of offering new shows that reach even larger audiences, and elevating the advocacy for those who need a voice most.”

SiriusXM Acquires Mars’ 99% Invisible Podcast

~ jen

Sirius XM announced that is has acquired 99% Invisible Inc., the Company owned by Roman Mars, the creator, host, and executive producer of the groundbreaking 99% Invisible podcast. The acquisition brings the acclaimed podcast host and his team to SiriusXM, where they will continue to operate 99% Invisible, the podcast What Trump Can Teach About Teach Us About Con Law, and develop new podcast projects.

99% Invisible will become part of Stitcher, the pioneering podcast company SiriusXM acquired last year as part of its goal to build the best home for podcast creators. With the addition of leading podcast platforms Stitcher and Simplecast, along with industry-leading ad tech company AdsWizz. SiriusXM has developed an ecosystem that podcasters can rely on to create, distribute and monetize their work, as well as gain access to SiriusXM’s broad talent relationships and make up use of the promotional power of its SiriusXM, Pandora and Stitcher listening platforms.

“I have made a career by telling stories about what’s right in front of us, and in this case, it is the opportunity to grow and create with SiriusXM,” Mars said. “This journey, which started more than 10 years ago on public radio, is a testament to the power of storytelling, the incredibly talented 99pi team, and the dedicated army of ‘Beautiful Nerds’ who we are fortunate to call our listeners. I’m incredibly proud of what we helped build at the Radiotopia network, the non-profit collective I co-founded with PRX, and look forward to the work we can do at SiriusXM.”

Based in Oakland, Mars launched 99% Invisible in 2010, an independently produced – and Kickstarter supported – radio show and podcast that exposes the unseen and overlooked aspects of design, architecture and activity that shapes the world. 99% Invisible has been downloaded more than 500 million times, and Mars has been named one of Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People.” Over the years Mars and his team have branched out beyond the flagship 99% Invisible, launching the successful Articles of Interest, According to Need, What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law and Judas and the Black Messiah podcasts, while also releasing a New York Times bestselling book, The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design. 

“In our tenth year of being an independent production, I began looking to evolve the show in new and exciting ways. While we explored a number of potential homes for 99% Invisible, I want to be with the company that launches new projects, and Stitcher provided us a unique opportunity to focus on the art of creating, developing and producing content we know our listeners will love, while freeing me of constantly thinking about the business of podcasting,” Mars said. “Moving forward, the entire 99% Invisible team will have the resources and support to pursue the stories we want to tell to an even larger universe of listeners. We could not be more excited to be joining the Stitcher family at SiriusXM.”

The 99% Invisible podcast will be available broadly and across SiriusXM’s multiple audio streaming services, including the Stitcher, Pandora, and SiriusXM apps. 99% Invisible joins other iconic, acclaimed and original podcasts whose home is SiriusXM, Stitcher and Pandora, including such popular shows and series as Office Ladies, Comedy Gold Minds with Kevin Hart, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, WTF with Marc Maron, LeVar Burton Reads and podcasts from Marvel Entertainment, and prestigious documentary and narrative projects such as Heaven’s Gate, Unfinished, The Dream, Sporkful and Hidden Brain. 

“We want to be home to the most creative producers working in podcasting today, so we couldn’t be more excited to welcome Roman and his team to Stitcher and SiriusXM,” said Megan Liberman, head of talk and podcast programming for SiriusXM and Stitcher. “SiriusXM built itself into North America’s leader in audio entertainment by attracting world-class talent. Bringing Roman and his team here is a natural extension of these efforts, and they will serve as a pillar as we continue building the most attractive home for podcast and audio creators.”

Scripps Agrees to Sell Stitcher to SiriusXM for $325 Million

~ jen

The E.W. Scripps Company has entered into an agreement with SiriusXM to sell podcast industry leader Stitcher for $325 million, a return of more than double Scripps’ investment in podcasting over the last five years.

The Stitcher company includes three distinct podcast business lines: the Midroll advertising rep firm; owned-and-operated podcast networks including comedy-focused Earwolf; and the Stitcher podcast listening platform.

Scripps was an early entrant into podcasting, acquiring Midroll in 2015 for $55 million and the Stitcher app in 2016 for $45 million. Since then, Stitcher has been a leader in the fast-growing podcast industry, growing revenue at CAGR of 52% from 2016-19. Stitcher’s 2019 revenue was $7.6 million.

The opportunity for Stitcher and its employees to join a large pure-play audio company ensures it will expand upon its success, Scripps President and CEO Adam Symson said.

“The sale is consistent with Scripps’ track record of growing businesses that capitalize on the evolution of consumers’ media habits and then unlocking shareholder value through spinoffs, exits, and continued organic growth,” said Symson. “Over and over, this strategy has proven effective as well as profitable for the company and its shareholders.”

“Today’s announcement, and the metrics around this sale, are an affirmation of our investment-for-growth strategy. We are firmly committed to our national businesses and are enthusiastic about the opportunities we see ahead of digital audio, over the top and over the air television.”

Transaction highlights:

    •  Sale price of $325 million, with $265 million of cash upfront; earnout of up to $30 million based on 2020 financial results and paid in 2021; earnout of up to $30 million based on 2021 financial results and paid in 2022
    • Full price representing an internal rate of return after taxes in the mid-20% range and cash-on-cash return of more than 2x, which incorporates the purchase prices for Midroll and Stitcher of $59.5 million as well as Scripps’ investments in the business over the last five years
    • Improvement in National Media segment profit and company EBITDA with the elimination of Stitcher annual losses in the high-teens millions of dollars
    • Estimated tax liability of approximately $70 million assuming the full earnout is achieved. Scripps has approximately $190 million of net operating loss carryforwards that would offset about $40 million in 2020 tax liabilities.
    • The move of all Stitcher employees to SiriusXM

“As a result of this transaction, Scripps is improving our leverage ratio through higher company EBITDA and garnering cash we can use toward debt reduction, which continues to be our highest priority,” Scripps Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Lisa Knutson said.

The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter, pending Hart-Scott-Rodino clearance. LionTree Advisors has acted as exclusive advisor to Scripps in the sale process, and BakerHostetler is serving as legal counsel.

FOX News Media Expands Broadcast Partnership with SiriusXM and Pandora

~ jen

FOX News Media and SiriusXM have expanded their existing broadcast partnership, announced John Sylvester, Vice President of FOX News Audio. As a part of the new agreement, all of FOX News Podcasts’ original programming is now available to Pandora’s more than 60 million monthly users across all tiers of the service. Additionally, the platform’s daily news digest, The FOX News Rundown, now airs weekday mornings on SiriusXM’s Patriot Channel 125.

In making this announcement, Sylvester said, “We are thrilled to expand our longstanding partnership, ensuring SiriusXM and Pandora’s combined over 100 million listeners continued access to our cutting edge news coverage as well as our best in class lifestyle and opinion programming.”

Through this new agreement, a one-hour version of The FOX News Rundown now airs on SiriusXM Patriot Channel 125 each weekday at 5AM/ET. As FOX News Audio’s signature news and analysis podcast, the program features a team of FOX News Radio anchors and reporters, including Jaqui Heinrich, Dave Anthony, Lisa Brady, Jessica Rosenthal and Chris Foster, as they break down the day’s top headlines, present interviews with key newsmakers and provide insights from FOX News reporters stationed around the globe.

Featuring a catalogue of more than 20 original FOX News Podcasts, the expanded partnership also includes popular podcasts such as the FOX News Radio Newscast, the FOX Business Hourly Report, and I’ll Tell You What, hosted by The Daily Briefing and The Five’s Dana Perino and FOX News politics editor Chris Stierwalt.

The agreement also makes FOX News Radio’s three nationally syndicated talk shows, The Brian Kilmeade Show, FOX Across America with Jimmy Falla and The Guy Benson Show available to Pandora listeners. This builds upon the streaming platform’s existing portfolio of FOX News programming, including the audio of FOX News Channel’s (FNC) top-rated shows, such as The Five, Special Report with Bret Baier, The Story with Martha McCallum, Tucker Carlson Tonight, Hannity, The Ingraham Angle and FOX News @ Night with Shannon Bream.

Reaching over 36 million listeners across more than 1,500 affiliated stations throughout the country, FOX News Audio is a rapidly growing division of FOX News Media. Per Podtrac analysis, FOX News Podcasts rank among the top 20 podcasts networks in the United States, based on average monthly downloads. In addition, in April 2020, the platform experienced a 60 percent increase in total downloads from the previous year.

SiriusXM Acquires Simplecast

~ jen

SirusXM announced the acquisition of Simplecast, a leading podcast management platform that enables podcasters to publish, manage, and measure their content. The Simplecast solution, pared with the award-winning monetization platform of AdsWizz, the adtech subsidiary of SiriusXM, creates an end-to-end solution that enables creators to publish and generate revenue from their podcasts all in one place.

Led by Founder & CEO, Brad Smith, the Simplecast platform, with its leading content management, audience analytics, and dynamic audio toolset, MAE (Moveable Audio Engine), has attracted some of the largest and most highly respected brands and publishers including Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, Netflix, Maximum Fun, Cloud10, QCODE, Anna Faris is Unqualified, Blue Wire, and Revision Path. The Simplecast platform is employed by a wide range of creators, from enterprise-level publishers and networks to independent niche podcasters.

Simplecast and AdsWizz will form SiriusXM’s publisher solution business, a full-service platform designed to meet the needs of podcast creators of all sizes. The acquisition expands and strengthens SiriusXM’s and Pandora’s tools and monetization services for podcasters and publishers. Through AdsWizz, SiriusXM offers a leading adtech solution for podcasters and networks, from dynamic ad insertion to ad serving, new programmatic solutions for podcasting, and the AdsWizz Podcast Marketplace, PodWave. Through Pandora for Podcasters, creators can easily submit their podcasts to reach Pandora’s millions of users and get access to data analytics tools and useful audience insights.

“Our goal is to provide audio publishers with state-of-the-art platforms and give them everything they need to be successful,” said Alexis van der Wyer, CEO of AdsWizz. “Empowering podcasters of any size to create, distribute, analyze, and monetize their work is the next natural step in pursuing our vision.”

“From the beginning, Simplecast’s mantra and mission was to remain laser-focused on podcast creators – building the best tools for publishing and insights,” said Brad Smith, the Founder & CEO of Simplecast. “The opportunity and alignment with AdsWizz allows our product — and our customers — access to a powerful monetization platform.  Two best-in-class platforms are now able to align with the shared mission of helping publishers succeed, while each team continues to focus on their respective areas of expertise.”

With the integration between AdsWizz and Simplecast’s MAE, podcast publishers are able to take advantage of the integrated solution now.

SoundCloud Announced $75M Investment from SiriusXM Holdings Inc.

~ jen

SoundCloud and SiriusXM Holdings Inc. announced that the leading U.S. audio entertainment company, SiriusXM, has invested $75 million in SoundCloud, the world’s largest open audio platform. SoundCloud will use this additional investment to accelerate its product development and enhance the services that fuel its global community of creators and listeners.

“SoundCloud’s three consecutive years of strong financial performance directly reflect the success of our creator-led growth strategy,” said Kerry Trainor, Chief Executive Officer, SoundCloud. “We have an exciting roadmap focused on deepening the connections between creators and listeners that fuel creator discovery, career growth, and the evolution of music culture on SoundCloud. We’ve built a great relationship with SiriusXM through our highly successful Pandora ad sales agreement, and their investment gives us added capital flexibility to accelerate our vision and take advantage of strategic opportunities as they arise.”

“SoundCloud’s unique platform serves a vital role in today’s music ecosystem where new artists are discovered and build their fan base, and established artists experiment and connect directly with their fans in highly effective ways,” said Jim Meyer, Chief Executive Officer of SiriusXM. “We admire SoundCloud’s loyal and growing audience, its offering for creators, and its reputation and popularity in global music communities. We believe this is another opportunity to continue creating value for SiriusXM stockholders by investing in expanding digital audio platforms.”

The minority investment follows the highly successful ad relationship between SoundCloud and Pandora, a subsidiary of SiriusXM, which started in 2019. The agreement enables advertisers and brands to purchase SoundCloud’s U.S. ad inventory directly through Pandora, leveraging the company’s direct sales capabilities, targeting data, and audio programmatic platform. Together, SoundCloud and Pandora’s combined U.S. audience offering reaches more than 100 million unique listeners, creating the largest digital audio advertising marketplace.

Under the terms of the agreement, SiriusXM has purchased $75 million of securities for a minority investment, and the SoundCloud Board of Directors will expand to include two individuals designated by SiriusXM.

SiriusXM to Acquire Pandora

~ jen

SiriusXM Holdings and Pandora Media today announced a definitive agreement under which SiriusXM will acquire Pandora in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $3.5 billion.

The combination of these two companies creates the world’s largest audio entertainment company. The combined company will engage in cross-promotion between SiriusXM’s base of more than 36 million subscribers across North America and 23 million-plus annual trial listeners and Pandora’s more than 70 million monthly active users.

The acquisition will enable leveraging of SiriusXM’s exclusive content and programming with Pandora’s ad-supported and subscription tiers to create unique audio packages while also utilizing SiriusXM’s extensive automotive relationships to drive Pandora’s in-car distribution. The press release mentioned “expanded monetization opportunities through both ad-supported and subscription services in and out of the vehicle.”

The press release says: “Following the completion of the transaction, there will be no immediate change in listener offerings.” I think the key word here is “immediate”. This is not a promise that things will not change.

The acquisition could bring up some issues for people who canceled their SiriusXM subscription because they strongly disagreed with the hiring of Steve Bannon. It may also be problematic for the people pushing SiriusXM to cancel Pearl Jam Radio. People who don’t want anything to do with SiriusXM, but who do want to continue using Pandora, face a moral dilemma.

Now might be a good time to find out if your favorite podcasts that are on SiriusXM or Pandora are available somewhere else. That will make it easier if the podcast disappears after the acquisition is final.