With podcasts steadily shoring up their position as a mainstay of the modern media landscape, canny distributors have been biding their time.
But now Aim-listed podcast platform Audioboom seems ready to cash in on the booming popularity of on-demand listening. Last month the Nicky Candy-backed audio firm, which distributes podcasts including nerdy QI favourite No Such Thing As A Fish and Sue Perkins: An Hour Or So With…, confirmed it had hired bankers at Raine Advisers to explore a sale.
Spotify splashed out at least €300m last year buying podcast startups Gimlet, Anchor and Parcast, and earlier this month revealed it has also snapped up sports-based network The Ringer. The incentives are clear. Insatiable demand means there are now estimated to be more than 850,000 podcasts worldwide.
But not many companies are willing to churn out full frontal marketing investment to match the growing tribe of audio nerds.
The reason could be in the unpredictability of the listening audience and the lack of knowledge of many brands on how viral the podcast craze is.
Meanwhile as million of Podheads are tuning in all over the globe, PR and marketing moguls are tuning out.
Text excluding title courtesy CityAM.com