Yahoo News SiriusXM to Shut Down Stitcher Podcast App
SiriusXM will shut down its podcast app Stitcher at the end of August.
In a memo sent to employees, executives from the satellite radio and audio company said SiriusXM will not be backing away from podcasting, but rather will be trying to move more listeners over to its SXM app in order to grow subscriber numbers ahead of new “streaming experience” launching this fall. The SiriusXM Podcast Network, which includes content production hubs Stitcher Studios and Earwolf, remains unchanged as part of this decision and there will not be layoffs as part of this.
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“The scale and reach of our widely distributed podcasts has been and remains a crucial accelerant for our advertising sales business, while incorporating podcasts more holistically into our flagship SiriusXM subscription service will help to drive further growth. As a result, we have made the decision to sunset our stand-alone podcast listening app as we increase our focus on these priorities,” reads an internal memo Tuesday from chief product and tech officer Joe Inzerillo, chief ad revenue officer John Trimble and chief content officer Scott Greenstein.
SiriusXM acquired Stitcher in 2020 from E.W. Scripps for $325 million. In addition to the podcasting app, Stitcher monetized and distributed content and created podcasts through Stitcher Studios, home to podcasts Let’s Talk Off Camera With Kelly Ripa, Sounds Gay and Sound Detectives, as well as Earwolf, which is home to the popular podcast How Did This Get Made? and more. Other top podcasts acquired through Stitcher include Freakonomics Radio and WTF With Marc Maron. Those podcasts will continue.
Stitcher Premium subscribers, who pay to listen to podcasts ad-free, have been sent a six-month free trial offer for SiriusXM Platinum Streaming.
The changes come after SiriusXM announced a restructuring in March that brought podcasts, alongside comedy and entertainment programming, under the leadership of Adam Sachs, former president of Team Coco. Other big names in the podcasting world have been undergoing consolidation as the era of high spending and exclusive deals for celebrity names winds down. This month, Spotify ended its podcasting deal with Prince Harry and Megan Markle, after previously cutting about 200 jobs and merging its studios Gimlet and Parcast into one brand.
Bloomberg first reported the news of Stitcher’s shuttering.
Full Memo:
All,
As we continue to evolve our business and our brands, we’ve made the decision to sunset the Stitcher app at the end of August. Podcasts are an important part of both our subscription and advertising strategies. The scale and reach of our widely-distributed podcasts has been and remains a crucial accelerant for our advertising sales business, while incorporating podcasts more holistically into our flagship SiriusXM subscription service will help to drive further growth. As a result, we have made the decision to sunset our standalone podcast listening app as we increase our focus on these priorities.
One of the original destinations for podcasters and podcast fans, Stitcher’s business evolved with the industry as podcasting went from being a niche format to a billion-dollar juggernaut. With the Stitcher team now fully integrated into SiriusXM, we have united our strengths to create the SiriusXM Podcast Network, one of the largest podcast advertising networks in the country. We are also helping new and existing partners to do more within podcasts, taking what Midroll did exceptionally well and supercharging it with the combined power of SXM Media and AdsWizz. On the content side, through our reorganization earlier this year, which moved podcast programming alongside comedy and entertainment, we are able to give legendary podcasters a new platform on SiriusXM while also introducing the biggest stars on our roster to podcasting.
Today, an estimated 120 million people around the US listen to podcasts each month, and with more shows in the Edison top 50 than any other company – we believe our wide distribution model has helped make so many of the podcasts we produce and represent a success.
Our unique ecosystem gives us flexibility to experiment, and with the new SiriusXM streaming experience launching this fall, we are taking inspiration and learnings from the Stitcher app to drive improved podcast listening for our subscribers, with the goal of making SiriusXM a competitive and credible listening platform for talk and podcast content from across the Company.
With legacy Stitcher team members embedded within every aspect of our business, from programming and marketing to sales and technology, we are thrilled to continue to bring podcasting into everything that we do.
If anyone has any questions or wants to chat further, just reach out.
Thank you,
Joe, John, and Scott
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