All Access

Media Deals

Media Deals Alerts

Alert

Standard

Media Deals Thought Bubble

Thought Bubble

mustard

BFD Expert Voices - Media Deals

BFD Expert Voices

topics

politics-policy

epstein-files

donald-trump

2026-midterm-elections

immigration

behind-the-curtain

race-and-equity

technology

privacy-tech-regulation

automation-and-ai

tiktok-news

big-tech

social-media

cybersecurity

economy

social-security

inflation

tariffs

federal-reserve

jobs

transportation

business

stock-market-news

retail-news

crypto

media

elon-musk

dealmaking

health

rfk-jr

drug-prices

axios-explains-abortion

public-health

world

israel

axios-explains-ukraine

iran

russia

china

energy-climate

nuclear-energy

climate-energy-policy

climate-change

extreme-weather

alternative-energy

electric-vehicles

science

emerging-tech

biomedicine

newsletters

pittsburgh

atlanta

san-diego

charlotte

boulder

washington-dc

kansas-city

dallas

denver

detroit

des-moines

austin

boston

chicago

cleveland

columbus

houston

indianapolis

miami

nashville

new-orleans

nw-arkansas

philadelphia

phoenix

portland

richmond

salt-lake-city

san-antonio

san-francisco

seattle

tampa-bay

twin-cities

raleigh

huntsville

colorado-springs

axios-local

axios-pro

axios-live

the-axios-show

Gumball, a self-serve ad platform specializing in host-read ads for podcasts, has raised $10 million in a series A funding round led by Union Square Ventures and Good Friends, CEO Marty Michael tells Kerry. 

Why it matters: The ad tech startup says it helps podcast creators and brands more easily collaborate, bringing more revenue into the rapidly growing media business. 

Podcast ad revenue reached $842 million in 2020, up from $708 million the year prior, and host-read ads represented more than half, according to the IAB 2020 U.S. Podcast Advertising Revenue Report.

"The preferred ad unit by both creators and brands is the host-read ad, so the real opportunity in my eyes is to figure ... to scale it the same way that programmatic allows you to scale," Michael says.

Details: Michael declined to disclose annual revenue but said Gumball's revenue for January 2022 surpassed its total revenue for 2021 and that 2022 revenue is expected to triple 2021's total.

This brings Gumball's total funding to $12 million, after its $2 million seed round in 2020 from USV and CollegeHumor co-founder Josh Abramson. 

Craft Ventures, Vertical Venture Partners, Animal Capital, Calm Ventures, Gaingels and Riverside Ventures also participated in the series A. 

Tech executives joining the series A included SiriusXM's Brad Smith, CRED's Kunal Shah, TCG's Eric Johnson, Momentive's Zander Lurie and SoundCloud's Kerry Trainor.

In addition, creators Nick Wiger, Mike Mitchell, Jon Gabrus, Mano Agapion, Geoffrey James, Reilly Anspaugh, Streeter Seidell, Sarah Schneider and Casey Neistat participated.

How it works: Michael says booking host-read ads used to take three to four weeks, but Gumball can take "about 30 seconds." 

Gumball's self-serve product allows brands to search for available ad inventory based on timing and desired audience.

More than 500 brands — including Casper, CBS and Netflix — have used the platform. 

Yes, but: All Gumball's ads are host-read, but there's a mix of dynamically inserted and "baked-in" ads. As Conal Byrne, CEO of iHeartMedia Digital Audio Group, recently told Digiday, those latter ads have "tons of limitations" since they cannot be changed or targeted to individuals. 

Context: Gumball was launched in 2015 within Headgum — a podcast network co-founded by Amir Blumenfeld, Jake Hurwitz and Michael, who all worked at CollegeHumor. 

Former Vimeo CTO Andrew Pile joined as Headgum's technical co-founder and CTO in 2017. 

Amir Cohen, also formerly of CollegeHumor, joined as COO in 2020. 

What's next: The funding will be put toward hiring and marketing. 

The company recently hired vice president of marketing Kayla Moriarty from ViacomCBS. Plans call for 30 employees by year-end, up from 14 before fundraising began.

The platform will soon incorporate YouTube impressions into podcasts' audience sizes. 

"Brands are going to get more reach, and creators are going to be able to sell their spots for a lot more money," Michael says. "For us, it's anywhere between [a] 20 and 50% increase based on the listening coming from YouTube."

1 big thing: Ad tech for podcasts

Illustrated collage of a microphone with pennies falling all around.

The fate of Starz remains uncertain four months after Lionsgate said it would look to sell or spin-off the premium cable network.

Why it matters: The debt from Lionsgate's $4.4 billion acquisition of Starz in 2016 has weighed down the company's stock. Executives think the two would be valued better as separate entities. 

Lionsgate CFO James Barge cited the opportunity to "unlock some significant shareholder value" during the Morgan Stanley TMT conference yesterday. But he was short on specifics about where those plans currently stand.

"I'm not in a position to be able to make an announcement," he said.

Starz CEO Jeffrey Hirsch also noted last year that there's an upside to a potential spinoff, citing faster growth opportunities.

The big picture: This has been a long time coming. Lionsgate has looked to offload Starz for years.

In 2019, reports surfaced that Lionsgate had tried to sell Starz to CBS Corp for $5 billion, which CBS balked at in favor of recombining with Viacom.

Lionsgate was also reportedly considering spinning off Starz via a SPAC. 

Lionsgate's share price plunged from its 2018 high of $35.52 to $5.33 in March 2020. It closed yesterday at $14.98. 

The bottom line: Separating Starz from Lionsgate would allow the studio to remain a "content arms dealer" while shedding the difficulties of maintaining a streaming service. 

As with Sony, which made a big purchase last week, Lionsgate has been seen as an acquisition target. That's a lot easier without streaming weighing them down. 

2. The BFD: Starz's future still cloudy

Illustration of the STARZ logo in a grey and cloudy sky

Orange (Paris: ORA) and Masmovil Ibercom entered into exclusive merger talks to create a Spanish telecom giant valued at €19.6b. http://axios.link/ywI1

Immutable, an Australian NFT startup, raised $200m at a $2.5b valuation. Temasek led, and was joined by Mirae Asset, ParaFi Capital, Declaration Partners and Tencent. http://axios.link/B8Oa

Adriel, an ad operations platform, raised $13 million in a series B round. Shinhan Venture Investment led with continued participation from KT Investment, LB Investment and Quantum Ventures. http://axios.link/tStL

Vince Vaughn is launching a podcast company, Audiorama, with ex-NFL stars Greg Olsen and Ryan Kalil. http://axios.link/W0Ka 

3. Deal flow

OpenAP promoted Brittany Slattery to CMO, Abbey Thomas to CRO and Chris LoRusso to CBO. http://axios.link/zViU

Javier de Diego, Eva Nordstrom, Vaughn Sterling, Ilyas Kirmani were named content leaders for CNN+. http://axios.link/GQDU

Snoop Dogg is joining FaZe Clan's talent network and board of directors. http://axios.link/2gns

Geffen Records named Tom March as president. http://axios.link/iKi0

Twitter promoted TJ Adeshola to head of global content partnerships. Sarah Rosen will oversee U.S. content partnerships. http://axios.link/hXPd

Heather Kadin is joining Range Media Partners as president of scripted TV. Kadin was the longtime president of Alex Kurtzman's Secret Hideout. http://axios.link/BJXM

G2 Esports hired Thuy Ha as head of content and Sasha Alexandrov becomes head of media. http://axios.link/Iioo

Barstool Sports CEO Erika Nardini is joining the Premier Lacrosse League's board of directors. http://axios.link/7RNK

4. Movin' on up (or out)

Data: Box Office Mojo; Chart: Axios Visuals

Video game movies haven't always been box office successes, but Sony's "Uncharted" is proving to be one. 

Even with bad reviews from critics, it beat expectations in its opening weekend last month. Its China release on March 14 is sure to bump it up in the ranking of top-grossing video game movies.

What they're saying: "There’s never been more heat around the intersection of gaming and Hollywood," venture capitalist Nick Tuosto, co-founder of Griffin Gaming Partners, tells Axios Pro Rata writer Dan Primack. 

“You see something like 'The Witcher' on Netflix help drive catalog sales of those games, and then we've seen games run community days when their movies launch, which puts butts in seats," Tuosto adds. "The next big one will be 'Borderlands.'"

Griffin Gaming Partners announced yesterday that it raised $750 million for its second fund.

What's next: More video game adaptations are in store for 2022, with "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" in April and "Super Mario Bros." expected for December. Paramount+ debuts its 'Halo' TV series on March 24.

5. Charted: Video game movies  🎮

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts answers the question on Wall Street's mind: Is streaming actually a good business? (Deadline)

"We have about $20 billion a year in content spend between Sky and NBC. And we ought to, in addition to some increase in that, we ought to be able to repurpose a lot of that toward helping Peacock make money," Roberts said at the Morgan Stanley TMT conference.

Peacock's new president is ready to take 'big swings' (Vulture)

In an hourlong interview, Kelly Campbell discussed content strategy, including the recent Hulu news. "In bringing that content home to Peacock, it also gives us a lot of opportunities to think about windowing, and how we program across our entire portfolio," she said. 

Toronto’s Stratagem Studios plans $20M expansion to draw Hollywood shoots (The Hollywood Reporter)

The studio facility hosted shoots for Marvel's "Hawkeye" and Paramount+'s "Mayor of Kingstown." 

Premier League's television deal in Russia 'under review' (The Athletic)

The U.K. league's current Russian TV deal ends after this season with Rambler Media, run by state-owned bank Sberbank. The Premier League starts a six-year deal with Match TV, owned by Gazprombank.

Both Sberbank and Gazprombank are under sanctions in the U.K. and U.S. amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

6. Channel surfing

Illustration of a surfer with a television in the place of his head.

🗣️ Quote of the day: "I heard from more people when we acquired Wordle than when my son was born, so certainly hit something there," NYT president and CEO Meredith Kopit Levien said at the Morgan Stanley TMT conference yesterday. 

@tim_bays: "The Dropout" on Hulu. Yes, Amanda Seyfried does Elizabeth Holmes' "voice."

@kerrymflynn: "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" on Amazon Prime. Someone once told me I remind them of the lead. Unclear if it's a compliment.

Thank you for reading Axios Pro Media Deals! Please ask your friends, colleagues and Tom Holland fans to sign up.

March 08, 2022

1 big thing: Ad tech for podcasts