860 Thoughts About The Rumored SiriusXM/iHeart Deal by Tom Webster
With several hot takes and narratives forming around the rumored SiriusXM deal to acquire iHeartMedia (as well as several alternate shapes such a merger could take), Webster drills down to the notion SiriusXM would strip iHeart’s radio stations of local content. After an analysis of content broadcast on iHeart stations in three mid-sized cities (Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, and Salt Lake City), he finds the percentage of weekday airtime is around 3% to 4% in two of the cities (with Indianapolis scoring under 1% local content). The evidence shows that localism on commercial radio exists primarily in local ad load, not in programming. A SiriusXM acquisition could bring advertising tech and talent to better serve local ads on local stations.
Noted Changes to Megaphone Campaigns
Reggie Risseeuw, Managing Partner at Amplitude Media Partners, detailed recent Megaphone updates in a LinkedIn post. With new ad server flighting tools for Standard and Priority Pre-Book campaigns, though Pre-Book campaigns will use the current system until July 14, 2026. Choosing Priority for an ad, Megaphone now ensures no other ads will run in an episode, including programmatic fill. Geotargeting is now mandatory, with one country per campaign. Multi-country targeting (e.g., U.S. and Canada) requires separate campaigns.
Podcast engagement drives brand audio spending ahead of World Cup by Sam Bradley
WARC data projects advertisers will spend over $10.5 billion during the four weeks of the 2026 World Cup, turning around a 4.6% media spend decrease for the 2022 Qatar edition. Per Sandell, co-lead, global head of advertising at Spotify, says the company expects the World Cup to be a “huge driver of content consumption across our ecosystem.”
The Most Valuable Ad Inventory Doesn’t Look Like an Ad Anymore by Kirby Grines
As content creation matures, how that content is sold evolves with it. Advertisers are shifting from exposure-based metrics to measurable outcomes like sales and repeat engagement. Creators are getting in on the measurement by building their own vertically integrated businesses, such as Dhar Mann’s production company or the PGA Tour’s own production infrastructure. Production and monetization are shifting toward creators and rights-holders who link content directly to measurable outcomes.
As for the rest of the news…
- Magellan AI has expanded its partnership with iHeartMedia to bring broadcast radio attribution to advertisers.
- JAR Podcast Solutions co-founder and CEO Roger Nairn recently joined Tom Schwab on Podcast Interview Marketing to talk about how influence is the goal of podcasting, not downloads.
- Netflix has appointed Jon Parkinson to Content Partnerships.
- Spreaker Create has launched, debuting a fully browser-based free podcast editor that does not require an account.
- Mad Gene, a production company headed by Oscar Isaac and Elvira Lind, has launched The List, an eight-episode podcast produced in collaboration with Multitude.
- To accelerate its video initiative, Acast has made two key local content team hires and upgraded its studios in Stockholm and Oslo.
- Ausha has added competitor rankings to its PSO Control Panel, implementing a competitive intelligence layer directly inside the Keyword Tracking module.
