PodcastOne US bought by LiveXLive

America’s PodcastOne has been acquired by LiveXLive in a deal worth US$18.1 million.

SCA’s PodcastOne Australia has partnered with the American company since 2016. Last year the Australian company moved into profit.

Grant Blackley has told radioinfo this morning that the US acquisition will not affect the Australian operation.

LiveXLive Media, Inc., a NASDAQ listed global digital media company focused on live entertainment, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Courtside Group, Inc., the owner and operator of PodcastOne, in an all stock deal. The transaction is valued at $18.1 million based on LiveXLive’s closing price on May 7, 2020. The proposed acquisition is expected to close by June 2020, subject to certain closing conditions.

PodcastOne generates over 2.1 billion downloads annually and produces over 350 episodes per week. PodcastOne has an American library of over 300 podcasts.

Robert Ellin, the Chairman and CEO of LiveXLive is “excited to expand our business into the fast-growing podcast category, complementing our music platform of streaming audio, on-demand video and live event performances. The acquisition will add to and diversify our revenue with a strong advertising component. Once acquired and integrated, we will have a significant opportunity to cross-sell and cross-promote to our respective subscribers, advertisers, and sponsors as well as provide our collective artists and on-air talent with an expanded platform to increase their social media and online presence.”

Both companies are headquartered in Los Angeles, and planned consolidation of teams is anticipated to generate cost synergies and combine back-end support and office locations. 

LiveXLive has plans to integrate PodcastOne into its music platform, offering current and new subscribers more unique and original programming. PodcastOne will also bring an experienced advertising sales team, tripling the size of the current LiveXLive sales team, as well as an established roster of major national brand advertisers and new distribution channels.

PodcastOne’s founder and Executive Chairman, Norman Pattiz, will join LiveXLive as a significant shareholder and remain as Executive Chairman of PodcastOne. Pattiz is regarded as a pioneer in the radio industry having founded and built Westwood One into the largest radio network in America.

The acquisition will bring LiveXLive into the fast-growing podcast industry. With 32% of Americans listening to podcasts on a monthly basis today and advertising revenue projected to surpass $1 billion by 2021, the acquisition will diversify LiveXLive’s revenue and is anticipated to accelerate its path toward profitability.

The move signals the beginning of a possible trend that may see more mergers of podcast platforms with eachother and with music streaming services.

ARN’s iHeartRadio Australia is the only converged music, radio and podcast platform in this country. ARN CEO Ciaran Davis has told radioinfo that the service has seen an increase in app downloads during the COVID-19 lockdown and an increase in listening to the service’s music streams, as well as a big uptick in podcast and radio stream listening. We will bring you an in depth chat with Ciaran Davis next week.

 
 

 

 

 

 


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