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This week iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman sat with Bloomberg’s Vonnie Quinn where, among other topics, the subject of podcasting came up.
As the company inches closer and closer to emerging from bankruptcy, with a much cleaner balance sheet, iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman sat for an interview with Vonnie Quinn on “Bloomberg Markets” this week. The topics included the chatter about the possibility of partnering with Liberty and Apple, radio having a larger reach than Facebook and Google and the success of the iHeartRadio app.
Quinn asked Pittman about the possibility of partnering with Apple. The iHeart CEO said the company has something very unique but he really couldn’t speak to who finds that attractive. “We’re the number one commercial podcaster now with a lead of about two or three to one over the next largest. We’re the number one digital radio app. We had more social impressions last year than the Superbowl, The Academy Awards and the Grammy’s combined. So we have a lot of powerful assets here and clearly we are opening to partner with people, and we do partner with a lot of companies. We pride ourselves on being good partners. So, we sort of look at what’s our goal, what’s the best way to get there and its usually three things, it’s usually make, buy or partner.”
Quinn also asked about a possible partnership with Liberty Media, which has also been rumored. “We wouldn’t comment on any possible alliance and I think you’d have to talk to them to see what they might have in mind. For us, we are focused on our mission which is to super serve the consumer, continue to build this massive reach we have with the number one reach medium in America, ahead of even Facebook and Google and really to get our advertising to catch up to the marketplace. We are under monetized based on the reach we have and the time spent listening, and the R.O.I. we give advertisers. We can do a lot more and that’s our 100% focus.”
Check out the entire interview HERE