Pod-Alization: Fantasy Football Podcast; Spotify At Podcast Movement; Bombing At Life

 NFL Network & iHeartPodcasts collaborate on fantasy football show

It's a smart move by the NFL Network and iHeartPodcasts to collaborate on NFL podcasts.  After all, the NFL knows its football product, and iHeart knows podcasting. Earlier this week, iHeartMedia and the National Football League (NFL) announced an exclusive multi-year deal to bring “The Fantasy Footballers Dynasty Show” podcast to the NFL Podcast Network. A spin-off of the Fantasy Footballers Show started in 2014 by hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright, the recently launched podcast will dive into the Dynasty world of fantasy football including NFL rookie scouting, NFL draft coverage, Dynasty draft advice, player breakdowns, and more.

Each Wednesday, one or more of the Fantasy Footballers – Holloway, Moore or Wright – will join their Editor-in-Chief Kyle Borgognoni and injury expert Matthew Betz to walk listeners through player rankings and trade values that will help take their Dynasty fantasy football game to the next level and dominate their league.

“The Fantasy Footballers Dynasty Show is an incredibly high-quality and entertaining podcast from the best in the business,” said Will Pearson, President of iHeartPodcasts. “We look forward to bringing the show to even more fantasy football fans across the country and are excited to welcome it to the NFL Podcast Network.”

“With the start of the 2023 season right around the corner, we’re looking forward to the continued growth of the NFL Podcast Network” said Meredith Battin, Vice President, Head of Business Operations & Club Media. “We’re excited to partner with iHeartMedia to add The Fantasy Footballers Dynasty Show alongside other fan favorites like Around the NFL and Good Morning Football, among others.”

“We're honored and excited to be partnering with the NFL and iHeart Media on our Dynasty show,” said Jason Moore, Host of The Fantasy Footballers. "Together with these outstanding partners, we look forward to providing fans with even more entertaining and useful content that makes fantasy football so much fun."

NFL Podcast Network is a collaboration between the NFL and iHeartMedia. It is the premier destination for coverage of the NFL and its 32 Teams, serving as the home for all official podcasts produced by NFL Media and the NFL. The network is home to popular podcasts including Around the NFL, Good Morning Football, Move the Sticks, The Season with Peter Schrager, and more. 

Fans can see the full lineup of podcasts here.

Football has already captured your eyes. Your ears are next.

Three iHeart Podcasts to recommend

Here are three iHeart podcasts that each offer their target audience a listening experience that can enjoy.

First, it's Princess of South Beach. Tune in on Tuesdays to follow South Beach’s most dysfunctional family for season two of the hit iHeartPodcast. Join Estrella as she teams up with Raúl and Andrés on a wild journey to find her long-lost high school sweetheart, Gabby. Meanwhile, Esteban discovers that the role of mayor may be more challenging than his time in prison, leading him to seek help from an unexpected source... all while a newly single Luisa connects with a special someone from Esteban's past. As relationships intertwine, new secrets come to light and a sudden reappearance threatens to disrupt everybody's schemes. 

These people make the Real Housewives look like amateur drama queens.

Second, it's Bombing with Eric Andre. I personally enjoy any podcast that focuses on how failure can lead to success. Fans of Eric Andre know there’s never a dull moment when he’s a part of the conversation, and listeners of his new podcast will find themselves laughing alongside the comedian as he hangs with his friends to talk about BOMBING.

They talk about their worst moments in all sorts of ways - on stage, in public, bombing in life and many more gnarly stories that may or may not involve audience members throwing a punch. Tune in on Wednesdays to hear more.

A similarly themed podcast that I love is Yeah, I F*cked That Up by Warner Music, which challenges the stigma of failure as the podcast highlights stories of defeat from prominent figures in the entertainment industry. The interview series premiered July 11 with featured guests Kelly Rowland and Steven Van Zandt.

Third, it's a podcast that is a stress reliever, and we can all use that safety valve.Nothing much happens: bedtime stories to help you sleep can be your answer to long, restless nights. Host Kathryn Nicolai’s bedtime stories are here to help you escape the chaos of everyday life, providing a soft landing spot for your mind to relax, settle and sleep. Press play on Mondays and join the millions of listeners who’ve found sweet dreams and better mornings.

Podcast Movement Conference in Denver a big success

The Podcast Movement conference in Denver (August 21-24) brought together the best minds in podcasting. Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster of Sounds Profitable attended and spoke. Podcast influencer Arielle Nissenblatt attended, as well as Podnews Managing Editor James Cridland. For the last decade, the goal of Podcast Movement has been to bring together and educate active and aspiring podcasters, and to grow the podcast community and industry as a whole.

This year, the conference in Denver offered over 150 educational and informative breakout sessions and panels spread across several tracks, enlightening and encouraging keynote presentations, and fun virtual networking events and parties.

The conference organizers were careful to format the conference in a way that there would be four days worth of sessions and activities, starting with a day of orientations and workshops, followed by three full conference days, that directly benefit anyone currently involved with, or looking to get into, podcasting and the podcast industry. With over 200 speakers and panelists participating in over 100 different sessions for you to pick from, Podcast Movement offered value to aspiring, indie, and new podcasters.

Of course, Spotify just had to steal the limelight to announce a number of features for podcasters to engage with audiences, get discovered, and grow. Spotify announced show page customization, which will enable creators to personalize parts of their podcast show page for the first time.

Impressions analytics will enable creators to understand how their show gets discovered on Spotify. They can use their Spotify for Podcasters dashboard to see the total number of impressions for their show and individual episodes in the past 30 days, how they have trended over that period, as well as specific sources on Spotify those impressions came from.

Creator controls for podcast previews will make it possible for creators to edit podcast previews, so they can select which part of their podcast they want to have included. Spotify’s new home feed presents users with automatically-generated previews of their personalized recommendations, which helps more listeners discover more content, and this will give creators more control over that content. Hosted and non-hosted creators can unlock this feature through Spotify for Podcasters this fall.

Podcast Movement 2023 was a huge success and should be considered a "must-attend" by aspirational or indie podcasters. Unlike the TV or film industries, where backbiting and gossip mongering are essential tools for survival, the podcast community is a collegial and collaborative community. That is, if you don't count Spotify, Apple, or Amazon, who all want to rule the podcasting world.