There are no synergies in podcast mergers. The only point is to try to get big enough to have leverage against advertisers and monopolize buying. It won't work,

There are no synergies in podcast mergers. The only point is to try to get big enough to have leverage against advertisers and monopolize buying. It won't work, and after a few years all the mergers will be unwound/go broke, just like every other media merger does. The only successful media merger of our time has been Disney buying up all IP ever, and it has been successful just because it's so limited: get IPs that are known to make money and use them to make money. Every other attempt to get synergy by combining Netscape and AOL with Time with Warner Bros. with GE with NBC etc. has been a failure, and even Disney is relatively failing with Disney+ because they don't actually have enough IP yet to monopolize streaming and jack up prices to a profitable rate.