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FYI

Bell’s iHeartRadio Brand Inks Podcast Deal With Spotify

As many as 10 million Canadians are now listening to podcasts and Bell Media's podcast network is already available to audiences on a variety of platforms. The inclusion of its branded shows on Spotify marks a significant step in securing top status for its brands in a growing market at home.

Bell’s iHeartRadio Brand Inks Podcast Deal With Spotify

By FYI Staff

Bell Media’siHeartRadio Canada Podcast Network announced today a new distribution partnership with Spotify, vastly broadening the reach of original podcasts in sports, entertainment, lifestyle, and news categories originating from TSN, Much Digital Studios, RDS, CTV News, iHeartRadio Canada, and Bell Media Studios.


The deal solidifies iHeartRadio Canada’s position in Canadian podcasting by ensuring its content is available to listeners across every major audio platform in the country.

In addition to Spotify, the iHeartRadio Canada network reaches podcast listeners through distribution partners including Apple, Audible, Stitcher, and Google Play Music.

The media company’s podcast network offers a library of more than 11,000 unique programs, with hundreds of thousands of hours of new content produced monthly in 17 categories including entertainment, news, sports, science, politics, food, business, comedy, and crime.

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“This latest agreement with Spotify is core to our strategy of delivering the best storytelling to diverse audiences across the country, in every medium, on every platform, and now to more Canadians than ever before,” said Rob Farina, Head of Radio Content, Strategy, and iHeartRadio at Bell Media.

Continuing: “Podcasting is an established and growing content ecosystem where diversity of opinion flourishes and a near limitless array of genres and sub-genres can be discovered and explored. As Canada’s leading content company, we look forward to growing our footprint through sustained investment in this dynamic content community.”

As many as 10 million Canadians listened to a podcast in the past year, according to a Canadian Podcast Listener Study conducted by Audio Insights Inc. and Ulster Media with support from The Globe & Mail. Three years ago, 30 percent of Canadians were listening to Podcasts. Today that figure has jumped to 41 per cent with 24 percent listening monthly, 15 percent weekly and four percent daily.

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Not By Choice on MuchOnDemand on MuchMusic in 2002.
Courtesy Photo

Not By Choice on MuchOnDemand on MuchMusic in 2002.

FYI

Obituary: Mike Bilcox of Ajax, Ontario Pop-Punk Band Not By Choice

Former drummer and now head of Round One Sports & Entertainment Liam Killeen pens this tribute to his former bandmate, with words from The Feldman Agency's Jeff Craib, Sum 41's Dave Baksh, Simple Plan's Chuck Comeau and more.

Mike Bilcox, lead singer and guitarist of Ajax, Ontario’s second most famous pop-punk band, Not By Choice, passed away on June 21, at age 48.

Mike started Not By Choice with his Ajax High School friend Glenn ‘Chico’ Dunning back in 1997. They had initially played a few shows under different names that may or may not be suitable for print, but our moniker came from Mike bothering his younger sister Chrissy at the dinner table. When she couldn’t take any more of his taunting, she promptly told her Mom, Pat, that he was annoying her – Pat yelled ‘Well, he’s your brother!’ to which Chrissy quickly replied ‘Yeah, not by choice!’. With that, a real band was born.

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