Welcome to Hot Pod, a newsletter about podcasts. This is issue 244, dated February 4, 2020.
New Sony venture. Sony Music Entertainment announced another podcasting venture today, this time in the shape of a partnership with U.K. audio company Somethin’ Else. This continues a recent run of Sony investments in audio — previous examples include Jonathan Hirsch’s Neon Hum Media, Adam Davidson and Laura Mayer’s Three Uncanny Four and Renay Richardson’s Broccoli Content.
Somethin’ Else is a slightly different proposition, though, in that it’s a long-established independent media production house. (Neon Hum, Broccoli Content, and ThreeUncannyFour are all new firms.) It was founded back in 1991 and has long been a major supplier of radio shows to the BBC, as well as produced TV shows and branded content. Podcasting has been a more recent development as the U.K. audio market has grown, and so far their output has focused on celebrity-driven shows such as David Tennant Does…
