SiriusXM Is Increasingly Unwell
It is building two new channels around Alex Cooper’s network as part of a $125 million deal.
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SiriusXM is increasingly Unwell. This week, the satellite-radio giant announced it will soon be launching two new channels associated with the Unwell Network, the multimedia brand anchored by Alex Cooper’s wildly popular flagship show, Call Her Daddy. This is a natural extension of SiriusXM’s relatively new relationship with Cooper, who moved over to the company from Spotify last summer. Variety reported at the time that the partnership, said to be valued at around $125 million, will likely run for “a little more than three years.”
Marking the Unwell Network’s first push into live radio, the programming will be split between Unwell Music, a 24/7 channel playing tunes reportedly curated by Cooper, and Unwell on Air, which will be stocked with a mix of recycled material from existing Unwell podcasts, such as Alix Earle’s Hot Mess, as well as live-to-air shows featuring new talent scouted by the network. Both will go live on February 11.
SiriusXM’s building two new channels around the Unwell Network shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given that linear audio programming is the company’s bread and butter. It’s also common practice for the way SiriusXM has handled its other major podcast assets, in which the emphasis seems to be on expanding their reach and exposure across all of the company’s available touchpoints, which can ultimately feed back into its subscription and advertising businesses. SiriusXM has launched similar live-programming channels around Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco, acquired a few years ago, and has done limited-run live programming with Crooked Media, a partner since 2022.
But SiriusXM’s partnership with Unwell is a little distinct, as it sees the latter pushing deeper into YouTube, a move that mirrors the podcast industry’s pivot to video. As of last week, video versions of Call Her Daddy are no longer available on Spotify; fans can now view those only on YouTube. Spotify users can still access the audio versions on the platform, however. Business Insider has also reported that the Unwell Network is moving to more generally expand its digital-video footprint by establishing a new YouTube channel and signing a “BookTok-focused discussion show” with the social-media creator Kierra Lewis.
Though it’s not all triumphant sunshine and roses over at SiriusXM: Vulture has confirmed the company laid off about 100 employees last week as part of a corporate restructuring that follows from a strategic shift announced late last year. Cooper’s star may be riding high over at the satellite-radio giant, but sadly, that’s not the case for the company’s rank-and-file staffers.
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