Music streaming service Deezer, which is making inroads in Africa has acquired Stitcher, an Internet talk radio launched 7 years ago and carrying over 35,000 shows from 40 countries.
The acquisition allows Deezer to become a truly global on-demand audio provider, offering consumers over 35 million music tracks and 35,000 radio shows and podcasts. Stitcher currently carries eight out of the top ten terrestrial radio shows and features content from over 12,000 content providers, including NPR, BBC, Fox News, Wall Street Journal, This American Life, Marc Maron, CBS Radio News and others.
According to Edison Research, streaming talk content continues to grow in the US, with approximately 39 million Americans having listened to an audio podcast in the past month and 30 percent of Americans having listened to a podcast.
“Almost every music listener listens to some form of talk radio, whether it is news, entertainment or sports,” said Daniel Marhely, Founder of Deezer. “We see the ability to deliver better talk streaming solutions in the same way that we are doing in music to super serve the needs of our global audience of 16 million users and growing. The acquisition of Stitcher helps us realize this opportunity.”
Deezer will further expand its distribution into the automotive entertainment market where Stitcher is already enabled in more than 50 models, including BMW, Ford, General Motors, Jaguar and Mazda vehicles and was an Apple CarPlay and Android Auto launch partner.
Stitcher will work independntly under the Deezer umbrella.