Five Years of Disruption and Growth in Programmatic Audio
Why audio’s evergreen role in daily life and SiriusXM Media’s innovation continue to push the industry forward
One of the most exciting things about the programmatic space is the constant change. New markets and evolving technologies continue to yield improved access and performance, which in turn accelerates growth. Over the last five years, audio has been at the forefront of change. This is true for consumption with the rapid growth in podcasting, as well as for emerging advertising opportunities such as programmatic buying access.
Leading Programmatic Audio
When SiriusXM Media launched the first-ever programmatic audio marketplace in 2019, we created a moment of positive disruption. For the first time, buyers could access premium audio content at scale and transact through their preferred DSP. This unified audio with other premium formats and enabled a holistic view to further prove how effective audio is at driving results. Since creating the initial programmatic audio marketplace, we’ve continued to innovate by expanding access through new content types, such as podcasting, and new device touchpoints, like connected cars and homes. Programmatic buyers can capitalize on the constant presence of audio in consumers’ lives.
Providing Premium Inventory, Transparent Buys, and Measurable Performance
To succeed in launching programmatic audio, our team analyzed past market disruptions and proactively planned for future changes. We set out to build a flexible product that could adapt to changing buyer goals. We achieved this by staying true to our core beliefs: that buyers want premium, transparent access with the ability to apply targeting, manage frequency, and validate performance through clear measurement.
At SiriusXM Media, we purposely positioned programmatic at the top of our waterfall, ensuring that buyers have the best access to decisions on impressions to deliver performance. We also lead with inventory transparency, declaring show and episode information in bid streams so buyers have all available information to make informed decisions. As the industry grapples with macro challenges, it’s been fun and exciting validation that many of the key themes are already solved within audio. Transparency, clean supply paths, and measurement are all well-positioned for buyer success in audio. This has been my favorite audio trend in 2025.
Advancing Audio in MMMs
Looking forward, we expect measurement, specifically the role of MMMs in valuing audio, will remain a key area of focus. The uniqueness of audio (think AM/FM broadcast vs. intimate 1:1 podcast ad delivery) has caused a gap in how MMM providers are scoring audio campaigns. We’re working with the IAB, buy-side partners, and measurement vendors to improve data fidelity and methodologies to ensure audio is properly measured within MMM.
Making Meaningful Partnerships
Another promising trend is the increased focus on audio from major technology companies. Our partnership with the Amazon DSP opens a brand new opportunity for audio to demonstrate value and drive meaningful business outcomes. Furthermore, as large language models (LLMs) and generative AI continue to advance, audio is uniquely positioned to thrive, leveraging these technologies to create highly personalized, contextually relevant, and scalable advertising experiences
Building an Environment Where Audio Thrives
The future of programmatic audio continues to be exciting, and it will be shaped by continued collaboration across the ecosystem. By working with our partners to advance MMM, improve signal fidelity to better include unique audio attributes, open new paths for scale, and continue to validate investment through performance measurement, we are building an environment where audio can thrive. SiriusXM Media is committed to driving this progress and ensuring that advertisers can confidently invest in audio with clear, measurable success.
Author
Mike Searles,
Enterprise Account Director, Programmatic,
