Brandon HendrickPodcasting has entered its maturity, in which the eye-watering spending sprees of the early 2020s have given way to more rational dealmaking. But even amid last year’s relative slowdown, the sector saw several marquee acquisitions.
Among those, SmartLess, hosted by Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes, moved from Wondery over to SiriusXM in a deal said to be worth more than $100 million; Wondery, in turn, nabbed Armchair Expert, co-hosted by Dax Shepard, from Spotify in an $80 million deal, suggesting there’s still demand for and a premium placed on top talent. Not to be outdone, Call Her Daddy’s Alex Cooper and the brothers Kelce with their New Heights podcast are said to be seeking nine-digit paydays of their own.
But, overall, the deal pace has abated. And instead of locking podcasts into exclusive distribution deals, as had been the initial model for Spotify in particular, companies are largely signing exclusive sales and first-look agreements with podcasters while seeing their shows distributed across all platforms. (In the case of Armchair, Wondery has a one-week exclusive window before wide distribution.)
Spotify, for instance, re-upped with its biggest name, Joe Rogan, in February yet ceded exclusive audio distribution that long had been part of his agreement.
The change comes as more companies now have well-established podcasting businesses with built-up advertising bases. The sector also has been forced to hunker down on financials, with Spotify and others conducting layoffs and making programming cuts in an effort to make the segment more profitable.
While the model is evolving, with video also becoming a bigger element, podcast listenership is still on the rise in 2024 and advertising is expected to follow suit. Everybody may have a podcast, as the cliché goes, but as the podcasting titans on the following pages demonstrate, there’s still plenty of room to grow.
