So I think the NPR group just went ahead and bought a podcast player - and a good, popular one at that. The big podcast companies have been clamoring for intrusive user tracking in podcast players for years now, and podcast player makers - led by Apple - have resisted. A CEO from Clear Channel is not encouraging. I could be wrong, and hope I am, but I’ll bet Pocket Casts will soon ask for permission to access your location. Many of the shows in this collective are already doing dynamic ad insertions based on their best guess of your location based on your IP address. I hope this works out great, but I would wager money that this is about user-tracking (for user-profile-based dynamic ad insertion) and embedding crap like listener surveys right in the player. They want what’s best for the podcasting space, they want to build Opportunity is the mission driven nature of these organizations. “We turned them down because the unique thing about this “We have hadĪcquisition offers in the past,” Ivanovic told The Verge by email. What the buyers paid, but because of who they are. Pocket Casts are insistent they chose this path not because of The acquisition price isn’t being disclosed. Owen Grover, a veteran of iHeartRadio / ClearĬhannel, has been named as Pocket Cast’s CEO. Unspecified “leadership roles.” The existing staff and development Philip Simpson and Russell Ivanovic, whoįormed Shifty Jelly (Pocket Cast’s developer) in 2008, will have Moving forward, Pocket Casts will operate as a joint ventureīetween the new owners. Group that includes NPR, WNYC Studios, WBEZ Chicago, and This Pocket Casts, widely considered to be one of the best mobile appsįor podcast listening, has been acquired by a collective NPR noted in its most recent financial statement in. Pocket Casts Acquired by NPR, Other Public Radio Stations, and This American Life Podcast Media LLC, Pocket Cast's owners since 2018, and its shareholding members have yet to make a statement about this deal as of press time.
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