Tag Archives: iHeartMedia

Luminary and Roxane Gay Announce The Roxane Gay Agenda

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Luminary, the subscription podcast network, and writer Dr. Roxane Gay announced the launch of The Roxane Gay Agenda. Premiering on Luminary on January 25 in partnership with iHeartMedia, The Roxane Gay Agenda is the bad feminist podcast of your dreams – compelling conversations curated in the way only Roxane Gay can. Gay offers uncommonly incisive reads of the politics that shape the world we live in and the popular culture we consume.

Two episodes of The Roxane Gay Agenda will debut on Tuesday, January 25 – the first episode will be available widely on Luminary, iHeartRadio, and everywhere podcasts are heard, and the second episode will be exclusive and ad-free for one week on Luminary before releasing widely on February 1. Going forward, episodes of The Roxane Gay Agenda will be released on Tuesdays exclusive and ad-free to subscribers on the Luminary app or the Luminary channel on Apple Podcasts for one week, after which they will be distributed through the iHeartPodcast Network and will be available on iHeartRadio and all major podcast platforms.

The Roxane Gay Agenda, produced by Gay along with Curtis Fox, continues Gay’s collaboration with Luminary, where she previously hosted the award-winning and beloved Hear to Slay with Tressie McMilan Cottom, for which the duo was named Adweek’s Host of the Year.

Dr. Roxane Gay’s writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally best selling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. She has several books forthcoming and is also at work on television and film projects.

Curtis Fox is a veteran podcast producer with deep roots in public radio. The current story editor for Radiotopia’s Ear Hustle, Curtis has produced everything from radio drama and comedy to personal essays and documentaries. His radio pieces have aired on WNYC, NPR, Studio 360 and other outlets. He originated four podcasts for The New Yorker, including The New Yorker Fiction Podcasts, and produced podcasts for Esquire Magazine, Parents Magazine, the ACLU, WNYC and others. For The Poetry Foundation he produces The Poetry Magazine Podcast and Poetry Off the Shelf, which he hosts. Curtis loves helping to shape new shows.

Podcasters at iHeartMedia are Unionizing

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The podcast producers, editors, researchers, writers, and hosts of iHeartMedia announced that they are unionizing with the Writer’s Guild of America, East. It is a labor union of over 6,000 creative professionals in broadcast news, scripted television and motion pictures, and digital media.

The iHeart Podcast Union provided information about why they want to form a union.

“…However, during difficult times, we are reminded that while the iHeart Digital Audio Group prides itself on its relative autonomy and ability to adapt to the shifting needs of the marketplace – much like a start-up – we work under the capacity constraints of a legacy broadcast conglomerate. Essentially, we have been encouraged to embrace the dynamism of start-up culture without any of the associated benefits.

Throughout the unprecedented challenges of the last two years, we managed to seamlessly transition to remote work; our adaptability helped the company not just sustain, but thrive during a period of economic uncertainty and social unrest. During team calls, town halls, and official email communications from leadership, we are frequently reminded of the financial gains that we helped make possible. Bob Pittman, CEO and Chairman of iHeartMedia, reported during last month’s quarterly earnings call that Digital Audio revenue increased by 77 percent compared to 2020. Our division’s significant growth was “driven primarily by continuing increases in demand for digital advertising and the continued growth of podcasting,” where revenue is up 184 percent compared to 2020.

Unfortunately, those gains have not reached the creators working round-the-clock to keep our audience of more than 30 million monthly listeners actively engaged. With hundreds of shows across all categories and genres, many of us are doing the work of multiple employees, and the huge volume of content we are responsible for is not met with equitable compensation. Furthermore, we lack transparency in workplace decision making, meaningful initiatives toward diversity and inclusion, fairness in managerial relationships, and clarity in divisions of labor. While we are proud to be an essential part of iHeartMedia’s success over the past few years, we are keenly aware of significant internal pay disparities between similarly positioned individuals within the company. And across the board, iHeartMedia’s overall compensation and benefits standards are wholly insufficient when compared to the greater podcast and scripted audio market…”

They are asking for the following:

  • Appropriate compensation and benefits
  • Accountability mechanisms regarding diversity and inclusion efforts
  • Manageable workloads and appropriate staffing for shows
  • Clear plans for advancement and standardized job descriptions
  • Job security

WARC and iHeartMedia Study Reveals Audio Investment Gap for Marketers

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WARC, the global authority on marketing intelligence, unveiled the results of a study conducted in collaboration with iHeartMedia, the number one audio company in the US, on media consumption and audio investment in the US.

“The Investment Gap: Understanding the Value of Audio” highlights a divergence between consumption and investment. While 31% of the average consumer’s media consumption is now audio, only 8.8% of the average media budget is allocated to audio, and 25% of advertisers do not invest in audio at all.

According to the study, consumers of every generation are spending more and more time with audio content across radio, streaming and podcast, driven by audio’s ease and accessibility with the growth of wireless headphones and smart speakers adding to in-car, at home, and work listening.

Whilst WARC Data forecasts audio advertising spend in the US to reach $13.9bn this year, a double-digit recovery (+10.9%) from the pandemic’s 2020 cuts, the report highlights a large audio investment gap and the vast opportunity that exists in this mass reach and high engagement audio advertising market.

The study also identified four key types of advertiser attitudes toward audio:

Audio Avoiders, the 25% of advertisers who do not invest in audio at all

Broadcast Believers, who have seen the benefits of radio and are beginning to delve into more forms of audio

Digital Only, those who have started to invest but are missing out on the full suite of audio options, particularly the 90% reach of broadcast radio

Cross-Platform Champions, who explore audio’s full potential and continue to test, learn from and optimize their investments across platforms

Furthermore, the study shows that audio is not a monolith. There are different and critical channels within the audio segment, and they play different roles in the minds of consumers that advertisers should take advantage of.

Broadcast radio reaches 9 out of 10 Americans every month, and is also the number one mass reach media among people ages 18 and over. Podcasts are the fastest growing new audio platform and consistently deliver higher advertising conversion rates than all other digital channels, including social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and even Google. Forecasts from IAB/PwC show podcast ad spend is expected to grow rapidly in the US this year, up to 60% to top $bn for the first time.

The study also highlights the effectiveness of audio advertising at al local, regional and national level and across every stage of the funnel.

Increases brand awareness: Audio delivers wide reach and high frequency. Nielsen Share Shift data shows that adding audio to a TV campaign improves performance by 20% whilst reducing costs.

Creates favorability: Audience members have close relationships with their preferred stations and platforms, audio boosts brand familiarity and consideration.

Sparks conversion: By delivering urgent calls-to-action at the most relevant times and places, audio motivates the actions and interaction brands require.

Whether brands tap into broadcast radio for its mass reach or its effectiveness or dive deeper into podcasting for its highest conversion rates, the study points out how right sizing the audio investment will drive real impact and growth for brands.

NFL and iHeartMedia Announce NFL’s Podcast Network Lineup

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Earlier this year, the NFL and iHeartMedia announced an exclusive partnership to launch the NFL’s Podcast Network which includes the distribution of NFL Media’s existing podcasts, certain Member Club podcasts, and co-production and distribution of two dozen new original shows with the iHeartPodcast Network. All podcasts will be available wherever podcasts are heard.

“We are excited to bring this new slate of podcasts to NFL fans everywhere, representing the best storytelling, access and talent from NFL Media and NFL Films,” said Meredith Battin, NFL, Vice President, Head of Business Operations & Club Media. “Through the NFL’s partnership with iHeartMedia and the launch of the NFL’s Podcast Network, it will be even easier for fans to discover great new podcasts from the NFL and participating Clubs.”

“We are proud to team up with the NFL to roll out an incredible lineup of podcasts,” said Will Pearson, Chief Operating Officer, iHeartPodcast Network. “Just as this football season kicks off, we’re thrilled to introduce such an expansive slate of shows featuring amazing talent across the NFL that will appeal to both casual and diehard fans around the globe.”

New podcasts coming to the NFL’s Podcast Network include:

NFL explained: NFL explained, hosted by Aditi Kinkhabwala and Mike Yam, is a new original podcast series that takes fans behind-the-scenes of the inner workings of the NFL. From how the regular season schedule is made, to the evolution of the Super Bowl, NFL explained looks to answer the NFL’s biggest questions. NFL explained debuted on August 25 and new episodes are available each week on Thursday.

NFL Inside Report: Don’t miss out on the top NFL stories provided by NFL Media’s wide array of talent. Hosted by Rhett Lewis, NFL Inside Report takes you beyond the headlines with NFL Media’s reporters and experts providing game recaps, the biggest news and in-depth storytelling. NFL Inside Report launched on Wednesday, September 8 with new episodes available each week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Tape Heads: Hosted by Dan Orlovsky, Bob Wischusen and Scott Pioli, Tape Heads is a twice-weekly, in-season X-and-O’s podcast giving the fans the “whys and the hows” of each week’s NFL action. In each episode, Dan, Bob, and Scott detail the biggest moments of the NFL weekend based on their tape study of the All-22 coaching film. Conversations fueled by observation and analysis give fans the insight and information they crave. Tape Heads launched on September 14, and new episodes will be available each week on Tuesday and Thursday.

iHeartMedia Partners with NRJ Group

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iHeartMedia and the French multimedia group NRJ announced a strategic partnership to develop, translate, distribute, and monetize a specially curated slate of iHeartRadio Original podcasts for French listeners. The first translated podcasts will be available on the iHeartRadio app, in France on NRJ Group’s platforms and everywhere podcasts are heard from the last quarter of 2021, with regular new additions thereafter.

Podcasts to be translated include the iconic Stuff You Should Know, the first-ever podcast to surpass one billion downloads. Launched in April 2008, the podcast has continuously educated listeners on a variety of topics in science, history, pop culture, urban legends, conspiracy theories and more. With thousands of episodes, a number of sold-out live events, a television season and a book deal, the show and its riveting hosts have garnered a loyal following across the globe.

Additional shows in the curated slate are set to include other popular curiosity podcasts including Stuff You Missed in History Class, Brain Stuff, Unobscured with Aaron Mahnke, and Cabinet of Curiosities, music podcast Rivals as well as some of the most riveting true-crime podcasts like Piketon Massacre, Missing in Alaska, Murder in Oregon, and Paper Ghosts with more to come.

“NRJ Group is proud to work with the world’s leading podcast publisher, sharing the same mission: making high-quality entertainment podcasts available to the widest audience. This deal enables us to significantly enrich our offer to French listeners while clearly positioning NRJ Global as the top reference in France for the monetization of podcast,” said Cécile Chambaudrie, NRJ Global President & CEO of NRJ Group digital activities.

In addition, the partnership will also include a slate of co-produced podcasts featuring top French talent with more details to be announced in the future.

As part of the deal, NRJ Group will distribute iHeartRadio Original English-language podcasts across their apps and websites; and will lead the monetization efforts in France with exclusive monetization rights for the French translation versions, and the co-produced slate of new podcasts from existing and emerging French talent. And to drive revenue faster, NRJ Global will leverage Triton Digital’s (recently acquired by iHeartMedia) industry-leading supply side platform Yield-Op and its programmatic audio marketplace.

“As podcast audiences continue to explode in the United States, the medium is also going global, beginning to grow meaningful fanbases around the world,” said Conal Byrne, CEO of iHeartMedia Digital Audio Group. “iHeartMedia is in a unique position to partner with the best audio companies from each territory – like NRJ in France – offering them deep archives of existing hits for translation, co-production of new shows to better support the French podcast creator community, and ad technology from Triton to build sustainable podcast revenue fast as part of the premiere worldwide audio marketplace.”

iHeartMedia and NBA Team Up Multi-Year Podcast Partnerships

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iHeartMedia and the National Basketball Association (NBA), announced a multi-year podcast partnership, which will feature the launch of more than 20 new iHeartRadio – NBA co-produced podcasts. The new slate of NBA podcasts will be distributed widely by the iHeartPodcast Network with the first show set to debut this Fall.

The new shows will be produced using a wide variety of content from the NBA archives to tell the backstories of some of the greatest moments in sports history, along with a mix of the latest league news, player commentary, insider analysis, and much more – available on iHeartRadio and everywhere podcasts are found.

“We are excited to expand the league’s audio offerings to fans by teaming up with iHeartMedia to deliver NBA content and storytelling to iHeartPodcast Network,” said David Denenberg, Senior Vice President, National & Local Network Partners. “We look forward to reaching more fans with content about our teams, players and history through this partnership.”

“The NBA is one of the toughest leagues in the world. These are relentless athletes, with a grueling schedule, at the absolute height of their game,” said Kevin LeGrett, President of iHeartMedia Sports. “Their stories are the stuff of legend and deserve mass-reach audience and top-tier brand partners. iHeart alone can can deliver that.”

The partnership provides the NBA and its teams access to iHeartMedia’s massive reach across multiple audio platforms including podcasts, streaming and broadcast radio, as well as the opportunity to develop a new slate of groundbreaking shows each year.

More details around the upcoming slate of NBA podcasts will be announced at a later date.

Celsius Partners with iHeartMedia in New Podcast Deal

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Celsius, the global industry-leading cryptocurrency yield-earning platform and podcast publisher iHeartMedia, announced a multiyear agreement to co-produce a new iHeartRadio Original podcast hosted by Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky and distributed through the iHeartPodcast Network.

Scheduled to launch later this year, the uniquely educational, entertaining informative podcast will feature Alex discussing a wide-ranging set of topics both inside and outside crypto, including fintech trends, personal finance, trade and regulation. The podcast will be available on the iHeartRadio App and everywhere podcasts are heard.

“Since our founding, the Celsius mission has included bringing the next 100 million people into crypto. As a company we understand that a huge part of that task is education and audience engagement. We’re proud to be partnering with a media giant like iHeart through their industry-leading podcast platform and believe it will be a force multiplier in reaching our goals,” said Vijay Konduru, Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Analytics of Celsius.

“We are excited to partner with a company like Celsius to build awareness and bring cryptocurrency education to new audiences and innovative ways,” said Joe Robinson, President of Ventures for iHeartMedia. “As cryptocurrencies continue to grow in popularity, we look forward to helping further educate listeners through this engaging podcast, so they can have a clearer understanding and responsibly engage and participate in this technology and space.”

The iHeartPodcast Network – the No. 1 podcast publisher globally as measured by Podtrac – has 27 million US monthly uniques and more than 250 million monthly global downloads and streams and spans every category from business, sports, spirituality and technology to entertainment, lifestyle, family, comedy, and true crime – and everything in between.

The two companies are also pursuing a broader partnership across iHeartMedia’s multiple audio platforms to bring further awareness of blockchain and cryptocurrencies to mainstream audiences at scale.

Catalina and iHeartMedia Partner to Measure Impact of Ads on Offline Sales

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Catalina, a leader in shopper intelligence and omni-channel media solutions that personalize the shopper journey, has formed a groundbreaking partnership with leading audio company iHeartMedia, to measure and attribute the impact of podcast advertising on offline sales in physical stores, which continue to represent the majority of CPG purchases.

To date, podcast measurement capabilities have helped advertisers understand the impact on an ad campaign on brand lift metrics like purchase intent or message recall, as well as attribution of digital user activity such as website visits from those listeners exposed to that campaign. Now, CPG partners will also gain visibility into the true offline sales impact of their marketing dollars within podcasting.

In addition, as part of this data partnership, Catalina will provide iHeartMedia with audiences and measurement services within iHeartMedia’s SmartAudio platform, for CPG ad campaigns that air on the latter’s linear and streaming radio programming.

“Podcast listening continues to skyrocket, with more than 115 million people in the U.S. anticipated to listen to podcasts this year – and podcast advertising expected to double over the next five years,” said Brian Dunphy, SVP of Catalina’s Strategic Partnerships and Channel Sales. “As the medium continues to rapidly grow, Catalina’s multi-path identity resolution capabilities combined with iHeartMedia’s unique Multiplatform audiences at scale enable us to match deterministic shopper households across a variety of identity paths helping advertisers measure the effectiveness and success of their podcast campaigns.”

To accomplish this, data & analytic teams at Catalina and iHeartMedia have worked together over the past year to test the feasibility of applying Catalina audiences and measurement capabilities to enhance the effectiveness of CPG ads running on iHeartMedia’s Multiplatform audio properties. The teams have since successfully completed pilot tests for measurement and audience targets across a range of iHeart’s audio properties, including podcasts.

“We have been impressed with Catalina’s ability to deliver highly-scaled, extensive data and insights for CPG advertisers, enabling them to measure the effectiveness of their brand messaging on in-store sales,” said David Shiffman, EVP of National Research at iHeartMedia. “We continue to focus on cross-platform measurement and attribution capabilities for advertisers and now in partnership with Catalina we can provide CPG advertisers tools to maximize their podcast campaigns’ ROI, with measurement and attribution solutions to more effectively plan and execute their multi-platform audio campaigns.”

Catalina’s Dunphy added, “As consumer-directed media consumption grows, it is critical for marketers to have a partner to help them effectively measure across channels. Thanks to our new partnership with iHeartmedia, we are excited to be unlocking and adding radio, streaming audio and podcasts to Catalina’s now comprehensive omni-channel platform capabilities that also includes TV, Out of Home, Digital Advertising, and In-Store campaigns. We have the capacity to reach shoppers with personalized messages at every step of the consumer journey, measure their impact, and even make adjustments in real time to drive sales.”

Bloomberg Media and iHeartMedia Team Up to Launch Original Podcasts

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Bloomberg Media and iHeartMedia announced an exclusive multiyear agreement to co-produce and distribute more than a dozen new original podcasts, and will also include the distribution of Bloomberg Media’s existing state of over 20 podcasts through the iHeartPodcast Network.

The new agreement will build on the success of Bloomberg Media’s lineup of business-related podcasts, including the incredibly popular Masters in Business, Odd Lots, Foundering, and The Pay Check, among others. The first four new co-produced iHeartRadio Original podcasts will take a broad view on business topics covering subject areas like financial crime or the cost of climate or the future of an industry. The new podcasts will be rolling out this year and will be available on the iHeartRadio App and everywhere podcasts are heard.

“Bloomberg Media continues to be one of the first, most-trusted destinations for high-quality content – from market news to business trends, to deeper financial backstories on what’s moving the economy overall,” said Conal Byrne, CEO of iHeartMedia Digital Audio Group. “We are excited to partner with Bloomberg, not only to grow the audience of their existing slate of great shows, but to develop a whole new list of titles across the next several years, combining their editorial expertise with our mass reach and monetization.”

“We continue to see growth with our chart-topping, award-winning podcasts, as we had 26% increase in podcast downloads in 2020,” said Scott Havens, Chief of Growth Officer and Global Head of Strategic Partnerships, Bloomberg Media. “Bloomberg Media delivers the global perspective and deep insight business-minded listeners crave, and new platforms such as the iHeartMedia network extends our reach with new audiences who are seeking quality, premium content.”

Bloomberg’s podcasts offer unparalleled insights and analysis into the financial and business worlds through a mixture of timely reporting and narrative style programs. Drawing on the journalistic strength of its global newsroom of over 2,700 journalists, Bloomberg Media’s podcasts deliver quality audio content that cover an extensive range of topics across business, finance, economics, technology, healthcare, and more.