SiriusXM just bought Conan O'Brien's podcast company for a cool $150 million

SiriusXM running on devices (Image credit: SiriusXM)

What you need to know

SiriusXM has bought Team Coco, the podcast company from Conan O'Brien.
O'Brien and his podcasting team will move to SiriusXM.
Team Coco podcasts will still be available on other platforms.

SiriusXM has announced that it has acquired Team Coco, the podcast company that was founded by Conan O'Brien. The deal will also include the hit podcast Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, the company confirmed.

As part of the new deal SiriusXM says that it has also signed O'Brien to a five-year talent agreement, "under which he will remain host of his namesake podcast, which will continue to be available widely, and will also collaborate with SiriusXM to create and executive produce a new fulltime, original Team Coco comedy channel for SiriusXM subscribers." The deal was announced via press release with the WSJ reporting that it is thought to have been one worth a cool $150 million.

For its money, SiriusXM believes it's getting plenty of value in a podcast outfit that averages 180 million downloads annually.

Since its inception over a decade ago, Team Coco has garnered more than 1 billion annual video views across YouTube and Facebook, averages 180 million annual podcast downloads, and now reaches 17 million fans across social media. Team Coco's flagship podcast, Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, which was developed with Stitcher's Earwolf, ranks as one of the top five most searched-for podcasts, and recently won two Webby Awards. By becoming a part of SiriusXM, the leading home of comedy in audio entertainment, Team Coco gains the promotional power of the SiriusXM, Pandora and Stitcher listening platforms – amplifying the network's voices and extending the Team Coco brand to new audiences.

Those who listen to Team Coco podcasts on other apps needn't worry, though. The press release notes that "Team Coco podcasts will continue to be available on Stitcher, the SXM App, Pandora, and major podcast listening platforms."

That means that you're open to using the best iPhone podcast app for you, whatever that may be, rather than relying on SiriusXM to get your Conan O'Brien podcast fix.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.