BBC Studios and ARN’s iHeart have signed a multi-year partnership deal that will see iHeart represent BBC podcasts in Australia.
iHeart will sell inventory across hundreds of hours of premium BBC podcasts as well as amplifying content in market.
ARN’s iHeart reaches nearly 7 million listeners monthly in Australia with its portfolio of local and international titles and the partnership provides advertisers with access to over 900,000 Australians who choose to listen to BBC content every month.
BBC Studios's SVP of BBC Audio, digital news and streaming, Louise la Grange, said the BBC has a big and loyal podcast fan base in Australia.
"We’re delighted to partner with market leader iHeart for representing the BBC’s rich portfolio of shows including World of Secrets, The Global Story and You’re Dead to Me to the ad market in Australia where iHeart has enormous scale, deep expertise and a proven track record of representing premium brands," she said.
ARN’s head of digital audio, Corey Layton, said the BBC is renowned for producing some of the world’s most compelling and high-quality podcasts.
"We’re thrilled to bring their premium, brand-safe podcast slate to Australian audiences while delivering valuable opportunities for advertisers," he said.
"By leveraging our local expertise and scale, we’re excited to amplify the reach of BBC podcasts and further cement iHeart’s position as Australia’s leading destination for audio entertainment."
BBC Studios ANZ's VP of ad sales and BBC StoryWorks, Jamie Chambers, said this partnership opens the door to advertisers looking to access scale deals in the audio space across BBC and other inventory represented by iHeart.
"For brands who want the very best of BBC audiences in Australia & New Zealand, we now have even greater capabilities to incorporate BBC Podcasts alongside campaigns accessing the rest of the BBC Studios portfolio including BBC.com, BBC News & BBC Studios channels on YouTube, our TV channels on Foxtel and Fetch, TopGear.com, BBC Social channels, and the recently announced FAST channels on 9Now," said Chambers.
The deal follows BBC Studios’ recent announcement that it has partnered with Triton Digital, the global technology and services leader in the digital audio, podcast and radio industries.
As the commercial arm of the BBC Group, BBC Studios is responsible for the international distribution and monetisation of the BBC’s catalogue of premium audio originals across news, technology, sports, travel, science, true crime, food, finance, and more.
The newly created BBC Studios Audio division is now home to one of the largest audio production companies in Europe, as well as being the international distributor of BBC Audio content.
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