• by Ray Schultz , July 19, 2022

Podcast company Acast is acquiring Podchaser, a podcast database that covers data on more than 4.5 million podcasts and more than 1.7 million data points, the company announced on Monday. The terms were not disclosed. 

The goal is for open podcasting to “not just have parity with the data held by closed, paywalled platforms, but to leap forward and surpass them,” says Acast CEO Ross Adams. 

The combined firms will deliver structured metadata while supporting the open podcast ecosystem, the company says. Founded in 2016, Podchaser will continue to operate as a separate brand and independent business. 

In addition, the firms “will accelerate the innovation and democratization of the podcasting ecosystem for podcasters, listeners and advertisers,” Adams contends.  

Podchaser allows listeners to discover new podcasts and find information about existing ones across all listening apps, the firm says. 

Acast offers tools for creating and publishing podcasts, and says it has a network of 47,000 podcasts that are heard 400 million times per month.  

Earlier this month, Acast was chosen by The New York Times to monetize its podcast programming in the U.K. In June, Acast developed an integration with Meta.