Spotify Technology SA has agreed to acquire podcast advertising and publishing firm Megaphone in a deal that will help the streaming giant ramp up its ad business.
The transaction values Megaphone at $235 million, according to its parent, Graham Holdings Co.
Formerly an audio-content producer known as Panoply, the company has been operating as Megaphone since 2016 and now focuses on helping podcasters with production, advertising and audience metrics. Its “Megaphone Targeted Marketplace” inserts ads when a podcast is downloaded and allows advertisers to target listeners by interest, purchase behavior and demographics across podcast apps. Instead of buying advertising time on specific podcasts, brands can buy ad slots targeting 60,000 audience segments for the more than 5,500 shows that use the service.
Spotify earlier this year introduced its own podcast-ad technology, “Streaming Ad Insertion,” which allows advertisers to track more precisely the number of impressions and frequency, and gain audience insights including age, gender, listening behavior and the type of device a consumer heard the ad on.
Following the acquisition, that Spotify ad technology, currently used only for the company’s hundreds of original and exclusive podcasts, is expected to expand to the thousands of shows that use Megaphone.
WSJ
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