This is technically true in that paying the money into Truth and Courage is not the same as paying Cruz directly. But he clearly sees a personal benefit, and the Campaign Legal Center argues that it crosses the legal line. \u201cThere is reason to believe Cruz has violated federal campaign finance laws that prohibit federal candidates and officeholders from soliciting or directing \u2018soft money\u2019 \u2014 including money from corporations, which are categorically prohibited from contributing to candidates \u2014 in connection with his 2024 reelection efforts,\u201d the group\u2019s complaint reads. Nelson did not respond to a request for comment on the filing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Cruz\u2019s camp denies any wrongdoing. \u201cSenator Cruz appears on Verdict<\/em> three times a week for free. He does this to pull back the veil on the corrupt inner workings of Washington \u2014 none of which ever get fairly covered,\u201d campaign spokesperson Macarena Martinez told Hot Pod<\/em> in a statement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
How the FEC rules could have big implications for how politicians are able to leverage podcasting for fundraising purposes. The typical election-cycle relationship between campaigns and the big radio companies is that those campaigns buy up a lot of spots in local markets \u2014 it\u2019s a transaction that financially benefits the radio company. But the Cruz situation flips that relationship on its head. Cruz gets the publicity while also making ad money that then gets funneled, if not to his official campaign, then to entities that support it. It\u2019s not clear how replicable this would even be \u2014 Cruz is a star who can command a national audience and get ad dollars \u2014 but it does set a troubling precedent for the politics-media dynamic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Behold! Podcast M&A: The Roost acquired by Night, Sony buys Neon Hum<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
Not so much of this these days. We have not one but two acquisitions announced this week. The Roost, which is the podcasting arm of the recently shuttered Rooster Teeth, has been purchased by influencer talent agency Night. Neon Hum, which previously had Sony Music as an investor, has been bought outright by the music giant. Notably, both companies offer something other than original content.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The Roost, which handles ad sales and distribution for The H3 Podcast <\/em>and The Kinda Funny Podcast<\/em> as part of its network, is the last pillar left standing of Rooster Teeth. Rooster Teeth was shut down last month by parent company Warner Bros. Discovery. The agency that is buying it, Night, represents digital stars like MrBeast and Kai Cenat, so it seems like a fit. Plus, Night\u2019s president, Ezra Cooperstein, served as the president of Rooster Teeth between 2018 and 2019. In buying The Roost, Night has acquired a podcasting infrastructure that could be extended to its valuable roster of clients.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
With Neon Hum, Sony is also broadening its reach. In addition to originals like Smoke Screen<\/em>, Neon Hum produced shows for clients like NBC News and HBO Max. As companies scale back on their own podcast units, they turn to production houses like Neon Hum to maintain a podcast presence. In a similar vein, Audacy laid off Pineapple Street Studio staffers who worked on original shows with an intention to focus more on client services.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
So, yes: podcast companies can still be acquisition targets, but increasingly, it is the less sexy stuff that sells.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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That\u2019s all for today! I\u2019ll be back on Thursday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is\u00a0Hot Pod,\u00a0The Verge\u2019s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up\u00a0here\u00a0for more. I hope you all had a great weekend\/eclipse\/first moment of NYC sunshine. Today, I\u2019ve got a look at Ted Cruz\u2019s eyebrow-raising arrangement with iHeart and news on two new acquisitions. Let\u2019s get into it. iHeart doesn\u2019t pay Ted Cruz for hosting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":88868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-88867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}