Audiochuck Gets $40M from TCG // Valuation Estimate and Podcast Momentum

March 7, 2025 by Chris Erwin

RockWater Roundup

M&A analysis of the creator economy to make you a better operator and investor.

Today we discuss TCG’s investment in Audiochuck, including the deal details, strategic rationale, valuation estimate, podcast M&A momentum, and the continued attractiveness of the true crime media market.

Let’s break it down…

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–TARGET: Audiochuck–

Overview

Podcast networking specializing in true crime and mystery
Founded 2017 by Ashley Flowers (also host of flagship Crime Junkie)
20 weekly and seasonal shows
Based in Indianapolis
65 FT employees

Business Lines

Creates podcast content incl Crime Junkie, The Deck, Park Predators
Recently announced Crime Junkie: Life Rule #10 tour, will visit 18 cities
NY Times best-seller novel All Good People Here
Developing several film / TV Projects
Fan Club subscription app

Company Highlights

Crime Junkie, #1 Show on Apple Podcasts (#2 overall)
- $45M annual profit (per Bloomberg)
- 6M listeners
4 year deal with SiriusXM for exclusive ad sales on Crime Junkie
- Audiochuck is SiriusXM’s largest network across all genres
2023 Adweek’s Podcast Network of the Year
Donated $8.5M to 150 nonprofits
Flowers committed $11M to helping families and investigative agencies solve violent crime cold cases, via her foundation Season of Justice

Capital Markets History

2025: $40M Minority Investment by TCG

–INVESTOR: The Chernin Group (TCG)–

Overview

Growth equity firm investing in sports and media
Founded in 2010 by Jesse Jacobs and Peter Chernin
- Started as holdco to acquire and operate D2C media / tech brands
- 2015: hired Mike Kerns, former senior exec at Yahoo!
- 2018: Kerns, Jacobs, and Chernin formally formed TCG as a PE firm
33 employees
Based in LA

Company Highlights

Focus on creator-driven media brands and emerging media platforms
Cofounder Peter Chernin also founded and Runs North Road, which houses his various studio and prod co ventures incl Chernin Entertainment, w/ credits including Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Ford vs. Ferrari
- Raised hundreds of millions of private equity and debt in 2022 to
Builds upon Chernin’s previous experience in media as CEO of Fox Group, where he greenlit Avatar and Titanic

Investment Criteria

Focused on media, entertainment, tech, sports, consumer, and digital sectors
Equity investment size of $25 – 75M
Past 5 Years:
- Even # of deals between Investments and Buyouts
- Primarily focused on EU and US investments / acquisitions

Capital Markets History

Closed a flagship $1.3B fund in July 2022
Raised $700M in November 2019
Raised $200M in April 2012

Select TCG Media Portfolio

Night Talent Management
Surfline (link to my article here)
Exploding Kittens (link to my article here)
Professional Lacrosse League
Hello Sunshine
Epic Gardening
Cars & Bids
MeatEater
Substack
Food52
Twitter
Cameo
Funko
Vuori

2024-2025 Investments

Target Name	Deal Date	Deal Type
Audiochuck	Feb-25	PE Growth/Expansion
PERRO AZUL	Jan-25	Buyout/LBO
Men in Blazers	Jan-25	Series A
Passive Pockets	Oct-24	Buyout/LBO
BiggerPockets	Aug-24	Buyout/LBO
Market Studios	Jun-24	PE Growth/Expansion
Classic Football Company	May-24	PE Growth/Expansion
Unrivaled Sports	Mar-24	Early Stage VC
SGC (Boca Raton)	Feb-24	Buyout/LBO
Sphere (Wilmington)	Feb-24	Seed Round

–DEAL DETAILS–

Overview

Announced 2.23.25
$40M investment
$250M company valuation
Implied ~16% ownership stake

Post Deal Ops

Not disclosed

Strategic Rationale

Double team to ~130, build out new business lines incl film and TV division
Launch more network shows; take advantage of competitive, but large and still growing true crime podcast space
Hire a professional CEO to focus on ops, so Flowers can focus on content and not have company so dependent on her
Expand philanthropic efforts for “bigger impact on the cases and social issues we champion”
Expand production and office space, going from 10k to 30k square feet
Expand live events lineup for Crime Junkie

–WHAT ELSE I FIND INTERESTING–

Valuation estimate on reported EBITDA feels off. Bloomberg reports that Crime Junkie does about $45M in profit per year. Let’s use profit as a proxy for EBITDA. Let’s also use the 80/20 rule to assume that the flagship show, out of a network of 20, makes up 80% of company profit. That implies $56M of total company profit. At a $250M valuation per Bloomberg, that’s a 4.5x EBITDA multiple. My immediate reaction is that the valuation multiple feels very low, and makes me think that the $45M reported profit figure, or valuation, isn’t accurate. Other podcast deals over the last 6 months were done at significantly higher valuation multiples, yet Audiochuck is a premium scaled asset in the space so unsure why there’d be such a discount. Something feels off. Or, TCG got great investment terms, and Flowers is excited to be in business with the venerable media-focused fund. I’ll have to make some calls and do more digging on that one.

Podcasting M&A is seeing new momentum (redux). I talked about this in my Fox / RSV analysis a couple weeks ago, which was another landmark podcast-focused deal. The Audiochuck and RSV deals follow 2024’s landmark acquisition of Veritone ONE and Oxford Road by Insignia Capital for $100M+ (our deal analysis), and also Acast’s acquisition of Wonder Media Network in Dec 2024. Like the creator economy, podcasting is heating up after a down period in dealmaking between summer 2022 through Q3 2024. Our team does M&A and strategy advisory in audio, and based on the financial performance we’re seeing in a few P&Ls, the future looks bright for high performers in the podcast and creator industries.

Audiochuck’s team expansion plans, and implications for SiriusXM partnership. The size of the investment, team expansion plans, the SiriusXM relationship make me think of another dynamic that could be at play. The insight is Inspired by MrBeast’s decision to exit its longstanding exclusive sales partnership with Night –> could Audiochuck seek to build out / expand its own ad sales and brand partnerships team, which could then cause the company to exit its exclusive SiriusXM ad sales partnership, which I believe terminates by the end of 2025? If so, the company’s goal would be keep more margin from ad sales, and also have more control of brand marketer relationships and how they’re activated across the overall Audiochuck portfolio. This is a dynamic that is constantly discussed at media co’s — when is the right time to re-think an ad sales partnership with a 3rd party and consider a build or buy strategy. This theme aligns with the M&A trends we cover on our deal blog. Curious to see how this shakes out.

A good quote from Deadline: “The number of true crime weekly listeners has reached 19 million, surpassing sports and news as the third largest category in podcasts. With an audience median age of 34, the podcasts draw a more diverse and increasingly female set of listeners.” Audiochuck has strong demographic concentration among 25-40 year old women, and is clearly building where the opportunity is. Also explains why RSV launched CrimeCon, a business that is consistenly growing YoY. Building in large and growing addressable markets is attractive to investors, if you can stand out from the competition and actually make money (burning a lot of cash to build market share in creator x media is very pre 2022, and out of vogue). Focus on profit, people. This should always be the mantra.

Highlights from recent podcast market data. 1B+ people a month view podcast content on YouTube, making it the largest podcast platform in the world. On Spotify, the number of users watching video podcasts grew 40% YoY, and the number of podcasters publishing videos on Spotify grew 70% YoY. SiriusXM added 149K subscribers at the end of 2024 and is exploring expanding its podcast subscription to Spotify, YouTube Music, and other platforms.

This deal makes me think about next steps for MrBallen and Ballen Studios. His studio operates in a similar space and has a similar business model and philanthropic mandate. I’m going to spend more time understanding his business. Just not today, I’m out of time…

I’m the founder of RockWater Industries. We do M&A and strategy advisory for creator economy and digital agencies. From buy / sell-side M&A and fundraising, to consumer research and go-to-market planning.

DM me on LinkedIn or email me chris @ wearerockwater dot com