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In May 2018, Pocket Casts was acquired by NPR, WNYC Studios, WBEZ Chicago and This American Life. This consortium of “top podcast producers” is now looking to sell Android, iOS and web apps.
First reported by Current last week, NPR’s latest financial report reveals how the owners “met and agreed to sell Pocket Casts, Podcast Media’s only asset” last month. Currently, the “sales plan is still under development,” but the divestment is expected to be completed by September 2021. NPR, which owns just over a third of Podcast Media, reported its share had lost $ 812,129 last year.
The app was originally acquired for “[further] public radio’s leading role as an innovator in audio discovery and distribution, while ensuring the continued support and growth of one of the most popular listening platforms in the market.
Meanwhile, the original developers of Pocket Casts agreed to the deal, which they saw as a partnership, given the shared vision between them and the new owners:
In the future things are going to be different. We will move faster, we will be more ambitious in what we do, and we will have incredible ideas from the best podcast producers in the world to guide our next steps.
Pocket Casts Development Team, 2018
Since then, Pocket Casts has undergone two big changes. The first was a redesign of the hardware theme that left the beta in March 2019 after four months of testing. Some users criticized this redesign given the conceptual changes made to how the app works.
Six months later, the app became free after previously costing $ 3.99, while a Pocket Casts Plus level of $ 9.99 / year was introduced for access to desktop apps (Mac, Windows and Web), Apple Watch support, more themes / icons, and cloud storage to upload your own content.
This Pocket Casts sale comes as Google, Apple, Spotify, and Amazon are all making big investments in the podcasting space. These last three companies are rumored to be working on paid subscription offers. We reached out to Pocket Casts to find out what this sale would mean for end users.
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