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SiriusXM to close the Stitcher podcast app
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 28 June 2023
SiriusXM is closing down Stitcher, the podcast app it acquired in 2020. The priority of the American satellite broadcaster, it seems, is to grow the podcast experience within its main SiriusXM app.
An update on the Stitcher website posted yesterday declares that: “SiriusXM, the owner of Stitcher, is focused on incorporating podcasts into its flagship SiriusXM subscription business. Subscribers can listen to podcasts within the SiriusXM app and will see an all-new listening experience later this year”.
The same update notes that “all podcasts on Stitcher can also be found anywhere else podcasts are distributed”. And, for those users who have put work into organising their podcast subscriptions via the Stitcher platform, there are then instructions for how to export the relevant data into other podcast apps.
Stitcher was originally launched in 2008. It was then acquired by Deezer in 2014, which sold it on to the media firm EW Scripps Co in 2016, which in turn merged it with an ad network that it already owned, Midroll Media. Sirius then bought that combined business, which also included a podcast production division, in 2020.
The advertising and production sides of Stitcher have now been fully integrated with the accompanying divisions of Sirius XM, which means – the company says – the shutdown of the standalone Stitcher app won’t result in any job losses.
The Stitcher app also had a premium option which included access to some exclusive programmes. Those are expected to continue to be available, both within Sirius XM and probably elsewhere, though the company says that the hosts and creators of those podcasts will ultimately decide on the future availability of their output, and listeners are advised to follow said hosts on social media.
The latest moves at SiriusXM follow the recent rejig and downsizing of podcasting operations over at Spotify, which has also been seeking to better integrate companies and technologies it previously acquired into its core business and platform.
