Spotify, an international media services providing company, has announced to buy The Ringer, the website and podcasting network in order to double down its podcasts strategy related to sports coverage. Both the companies have refused to disclose the financial details of the deal.
In its mix, The Ringer currently has 30 sports and other podcasts with which it achieves around 100 million downloads per month. Whereas, Spotify declared that it contains 700,000 podcasts in its mix through which the company noted a business growth of 200% in its previous quarter.
The Ringer had profitably generated its revenue worth of $15 million in its 2018 closing, and Spotify has invested an estimated amount of $400 million to $500 million to purchase other podcast assets. But, buying The Ringer is a huge achievement for Spotify as its own podcasting business is growing faster and the company got addition of a renowned brand in podcasting.
Daniel Ek, the CEO of Spotify stated in an earnings call that, “The trend that we are investing in here is that radio is moving online.” “We bought the next ESPN,” he added.
The Chief Content Officer of Spotify, Dawn Ostroff states, “We look forward to putting the full power of Spotify behind The Ringer as they drive our global sports strategy.” She further includes, “As we set out to expand our sports and entertainment offerings, we wanted a best-in-class editorial team. Bill Simmons is one of the brightest minds in the game and he has successfully innovated as a writer and content creator across mediums and platforms. The Ringer’s proven track record of creating distinctive cultural content as well as discovering and developing top tier talent will make them a formidable asset for Spotify.”
Bill Simmons, the Founder and podcast host at The Ringer states, “Spotify has the unique ability to truly supercharge both content and creator talent across genres. We spent the last few years building a world-class sports and pop culture multimedia digital company and believe Spotify can take us to another level. We couldn’t be more excited to unlock Spotify’s power of scale and discovery, introduce The Ringer to a new global audience and build the world’s flagship sports audio network. We’re joining one of the best media companies in the world. It’s an incredible day for us.”
