Rogers Sports & Media is shutting down Pacific Content, its branded podcast division.
Founded in 2014 by CBC Radio and CBC Music alumni Steve Pratt and Jennifer Ouano [in addition to Chris Kelly and Pat Kelly, who soon departed to found boutique production house Kelly&Kelly], they were joined by Chris Boyce and business consultant Rob Leadley in 2016. The B2B podcast company has predominantly serviced U.S.-based clients like Dell, Ford Motor Company, Morgan Stanley, Charles Schwab, and Facebook, among others.
Rogers Sports & Media acquired the business in 2019. Boyce and Pratt both departed the company in 2022, followed by Dan Misener, Director of Audience Development, and Jonas Woost, Director of Strategy, who went on to co-found podcast growth venture, Bumper.
A Rogers Sports & Media spokesperson told Broadcast Dialogue that with the U.S. podcasting space, and particularly the branded podcast niche, becoming increasingly competitive, the company is re-focusing its efforts on its Canadian audio business.
“Pacific Content earned a strong reputation for its leadership in B2B podcasting with U.S.- based clients, and we’re proud of the work produced by the team,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “With economic challenges in this market over the past few years, we’ve decided to focus on our core audio business – creating meaningful content for Canadian audiences and advertisers. Podcasting remains a key part of our audio business with our continued investments in growing our in-house podcasts – Frequency Podcast Network and Sportsnet.“
Pacific Content’s operations will wind down by the end of June, with all content producers and administrative staff supporting the company to be impacted. The company previously underwent a round of restructuring in February 2023.
The company spokesperson said the decision to shutter the business is in no way a reflection of the work of the team.
“The original founders of Pacific Content built an amazing team and brand, and everyone who worked for Pacific Content over the years should be immensely proud of their efforts,” they added.
Reached at his home in Vancouver, Steve Pratt told Broadcast Dialogue the news came as a shock.
“It was a phenomenal, phenomenal team of people that built a company with a great culture and an amazing group of clients, and it’s a sad day,” said Pratt. “My heart goes out to the team members affected. It’s very sad closure to what was a phenomenal entrepreneurial journey for me and the whole team.”
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