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Bill Simmons tapped to head Spotify’s global sports division
The head of ‘The Ringer’ will oversee Spotify’s expansion of international sports coverage.
Spotify's Daily Sports playlist combines music and podcasts
Daily Sports playlists will feature a mix of music and podcasts.
Spotify is buying The Ringer to boost its sports coverage
And there we go. Just an hour after it posted its latest financial results, Spotify has announced that it's buying The Ringer. Bill Simmons' sports and entertainment venture will offer up its podcast catalog, website and staffers, as well as its 100-million strong fanbase of listeners. Unfortunately, there's no word on how much the deal will cost, but The Ringer is a profitable company that made $15 million on podcasts in 2018.
Spotify may be in talks to buy culture outlet The Ringer
Spotify might be making one of its biggest moves yet in its bid to conquer the podcasting world. Wall Street Journal sources say the streaming company is in "early" talks to acquire The Ringer, the sports- and pop culture-oriented outlet founded by ex-ESPN personality Bill Simmons (above). While it's not guaranteed this would lead to a deal, a purchase would give Spotify control of over 30 podcasts (including The Bill Simmons Podcast) that rake in over 100 million downloads per month.
ESPN hops on the Sony thumbs-up wagon, says silly stuff
"The glory days of Intellivision football seem like they happened about 2,500 years ago." This is a quote from Bill Simmons over at the ESPN website. We recommend hitting ctrl+F and type in Playstation to find the snippit about the PS3 release party he "weaseled" his way into. What was his expert take on it? He says: "buy Sony stock." Guess he was impressed. Even so, the expert comment was sarcastic because, well, he's not exactly an authority on gaming.If you like basketball, you'll probably get this quote (it went right over my head): "As they were giving me the virtual tour, I kept laughing and making orgasmic noises, kinda like the way Tommy Heinsohn sounds when Rajon Rondo makes one of his three spectacular plays per game for the Celtics." Essentially, the common man (albeit a high-profile ESPN fellow) was thoroughly impressed by the PS3 and, come November 17th, we might be too. Or our parents will be. We thought this was a pretty funny tip submission, so extra thanks to Jason for bringing a smile to our faces.[thanks, Jason!]
