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Some longtime podcasters may not like it, or agree with it, when iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman says iHeart is number one in podcasting. However, after a recent CNBC interview, nobody can claim that he’s not becoming just as strong an advocate for podcasting as he is for radio.
Pittman is in Santa Barbara, California, this week for a Goldman Sachs conference, where he was interviewed by Wilfred Frost for CNBC. Frost just couldn’t get away from making the tired Netflix comparison we’ve heard far too many times before as he asked Pittman about podcasting.
Pittman stayed focused on how strong iHeart is in the space and how enthusiastic he is about its future. “If you look at podcasting today, the two big publishers are us and NPR. The next one down is about half our size. I think that’s because we’re both radio and we’re podcasting, and the two work in tandem. Podcasting is an extension of what we do on radio. It’s not a bolt-on business.”
On Frost’s Netflix comparison, Pittman said, “We looked at Netflix as part of our podcast strategy. Netflix belongs with the TV networks. It’s an extension of them. It’s TV on demand, and some other stuff that looks like TV. That’s why it was so important to us to own podcasting, because it’s an extension. For us, it’s important that it’s one seamless operation, so we can go back and forth between podcasts and radio with the consumer. We’re one audience, multiple platforms.”
Frost went back to Netflix yet again. He asked Pittman if he was worried about the competition in podcasting after seeing Apple, Disney, and others starting to challenge Netflix. Pittman didn’t sound too worried. “Anybody who gets into podcasting helps us because we’re the leader. Every time someone new comes into podcasting, they’re bringing people with them, and that’s good for iHeart. We’ve got the big library, we’ve got the big shows. And so bringing them into the ecosystem of podcasting is very good for us. So we’re encouraging everybody to get into podcasting.”
Whether you agree that iHeart is number one or not, everyone should embrace Pittman’s message about the space. It’s nice to have him on your side, upbeat and positive about podcasting. For years Pittman said Pandora was not a sustainable business model on its own, calling it a music collection, an add-on to the companionship of radio. We saw how that one turned out.
You can watch the CNBC interview HERE.