WASHINGTON — Streaming platform HBO Max is expanding into the podcast market. The company will release its upcoming podcast “Batman: The Audio Adventures” exclusively on the streaming platform as it continues to expand its audio offerings beyond companion podcasts.
The company announced recently that it’s planning to release its new “Batman” podcast, “Batman: The Audio Adventures,” as an in-app exclusive, meaning it won’t make its way to other podcasting apps or be available through a “Really Simple Syndication” (RSS) feed, as per reports.
The scripted show, which features Jeffrey Wright as Batman, Rosario Dawson as Batwoman, and John Leguizamo as the Riddler, will premiere this fall, although no exact date was provided.
The cast also includes “Saturday Night Live” stars like Seth Meyers, Jason Sudeikis, Fred Armisen, Kenan Thompson, Bobby Moynihan, and Heidi Gardner, as per reports.
The 1960s series called “Batman: The Animated Series” will inspire the podcast.
Streaming platform HBO Max launched its first podcast program in 2019.
Written and helmed by Dennis McNicholas, “Batman: The Audio Adventures” will be produced by Warner Bros. and D.C. Comics in partnership.
In a chat with a news organization, Joshua Walker, chief strategy officer at HBO Max, said the decision to make the “Batman: The Audio Adventures” exclusive has to do with the show being an original scripted series.
“For scripted originals, our working theory now is that they should sit aside our other scripted original content exclusively within the HBO Max environment,” said Walker.
“But because we’re early days on scripted original audio content, we do look at this as something that we’ll learn from, and we’ll see how it develops over time as we go from here.”
The show won’t include advertisements and will be part of HBO Max subscribers’ included content. It won’t cost extra to access the audio.
Along with that news, HBO also announced other new, forthcoming podcasts, including a scripted sequel to Issa Rae’s “Looking For Latoya,” called “We Stay Looking,” as well as a new “The O.C.” companion podcast called “Welcome to The OC, Bitches.”
Both of these will be available on HBO Max, with Walker declining to say definitively whether “Looking For Latoya” would be an exclusive or not, given that it is an original scripted show.
The team also said it plans to allow for locked phone listening at some point but didn’t commit to a date when that rollout might happen.
At the same time, it’s easy to see why HBO wants to double down on audio. Its competitors, namely streaming platform Netflix, have also become more invested in a more robust podcasting strategy.
Streaming platform Netflix hired its first podcast executive, N’Jeri Eaton, previously of Apple Podcasts, last month and used podcasting as a marketing tool to encourage more people to come to its video app and subscribe.
The podcasts are available everywhere, though, presumably to reach people who aren’t already in the Netflix ecosystem.
(With inputs from ANI)
Edited by Ojaswin Kathuria and Nikita Nikhil
The post “Batman: The Audio Adventures” To Release On HBO Max As Streamer Expands Podcasting Efforts appeared first on Zenger News.
