Posts tagged with "as signed a roughly $80 million podcasting deal with Amazon"

July 15, 2024

Comedian Dax Shepard has signed a roughly $80 million podcasting deal with Amazon, shifting his popular “Armchair Expert” show to its Wondery platform from Spotify, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Wondery will exclusively distribute and sell ads for “Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard,” as well as co-produce two new podcasts. The agreement also includes a livestream of the show each year with Shepard and a first-look option for any new podcasts he creates.

The deal is part of a wave of new podcast deals being forged after a boom-and-bust cycle for the format over the past five years. It underscores how the format is evolving in its new, more sober era, and the new ways in which platforms are trying to monetize hot shows and their stars.

Amazon plans to launch video episodes—a new feature for “Armchair Expert”—and create translated versions of the podcast to distribute globally.

New episodes of “Armchair Expert” will be available a week early and without ads to customers who pay for Amazon’s Wondery+ subscription service before being distributed widely across platforms like Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Amazon plans to exclusively create and sell all merchandise related to the show.

Under Amazon’s deal with Shepard, it will distribute and sell ads for the full back catalog of “Armchair Expert” podcasts, starting in September. Launched in 2018, the show has featured more than 600 interviews with big names—from celebrities to artists, scientists, politicians and authors including former President Barack Obama, Bill Gates and Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Research contact: @WSJ