- SiriusXM has now launched Stitcher’s podcasts on Pandora across all tiers
- The podcasts will be using the company’s proprietary on Pandora
- SiriusXM gained thousands of top podcasts with the deal’s closure
- Stitcher was not SiriusXM’s first acquisition focused on podcast.
SiriusXM has completed its previously announced $325 million acquisition of podcast platform Stitcher from E.W. Scripps and has now launched Stitcher’s podcasts on Pandora across all tiers of the streaming service.
The deal brings top Stitcher titles to Pandora. These titles include Freakonomics Radio, My Favorite Murder, SuperSoul Conversations from the Oprah Winfrey Network. Office Ladies, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, Literally! with Rob Lowe are also a few titles included. LeVar Burton Reads and WTF with Marc Maron, among others also add to the value of Pandora.
The Stitcher acquisition brought with it several key assets, including its own mobile listening app. This includes a premium tier of exclusives and the Midroll Media network for podcast advertising.
Why did Stitcher Podcast on Pandora?
On Pandora, the podcasts will be indexed using the company’s proprietary Podcast Genome Project technology. This system leverages automated technology — like natural language processing, collaborative filtering, and other machine learning approaches — then combines that with human curation to make personalized recommendations to podcast listeners on Pandora’s app.
The Pandora app will now host shows from StitcherStitcher app users, including Stitcher Premium subscribers, will still be able to stay on that app for now. The biggest differentiator that Pandora has, is a deep-learning search index algorithm called the Podcast Genome Project.
Why did SiriusXM acquire stitcher?
The Stitcher acquisition brought with it several key assets, including its own mobile listening app. The app includes a premium tier of exclusives and a Midroll Media network for podcast advertising. Stitcher also creates its own original programs and runs multiple content networks, via Earwolf.
SiriusXM gained thousands of top podcasts with the deal’s closure. The company also claims that it has the “largest addressable audience in North America” across all categories of digital audio. This includes music, sports, talk, and podcasts thanks to SiriusXM, streaming app Pandora and now Stitcher.
Stitcher was not SiriusXM’s first acquisition focused on podcasts or ad technologies. It also bought podcast management platform Simplecast.
