Bill Simmons, founder and CEO of the Spotify-owned podcast network The Ringer, canceled a sponsorship with OpenAI’s ChatGPT after listeners objected to AI-driven segments built into its shows, according to a November 12 Bloomberg report by Ashley Carman.
In a statement to Bloomberg, Simmons said The Ringer had tried to “integrate AI research for baked-in content segments for a couple of our shows the way some of our competitors were doing (and also leagues like the NFL were doing)” starting last spring. “I’m always going to try to be early instead of late on something,” Simmons said. “This time we learned almost immediately that those segments weren’t a fit for us,” Simmons added, saying “our audience just didn’t like them.”
Little scoop for the Ringer fans: Bill Simmons ended his ChatGPT sponsorship after backlash from fans. His colleagues Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins also previously spoke out about their dislike of the promotions in clips that went viralhttps://t.co/gkBn8o5VrZ
The sponsored segments ran mainly on “The Bill Simmons Podcast” and “The Ringer Fantasy Football Show,” Awful Announcing reported on August 18. On the August 17 episode about Russell Westbrook’s retirement, a segment on the guard’s defining game was introduced as “brought to you by ChatGPT, the Bill Simmons Podcast AI sponsor.” ChatGPT picked an April 2017 Thunder game against the Denver Nuggets. The fantasy hosts used it to pull players’ average draft positions and other statistics.
The reaction was visible within days. The top five Spotify comments on the Westbrook episode were all teasing or criticizing the segment, according to the same report, and the top post on the r/billsimmons subreddit that day was titled “The ChatGPT of it all kind of makes me want to stop listening.” Bloomberg did not report the value of the deal or the date it ended. ChatGPT’s ad copy ran in the notes of four “Bill Simmons Podcast” episodes in August, the last on August 25, and has not appeared in the 35 episodes published since, according to a Net Influencer review of the show’s podcast feed.
AI Companies Are Spending Heavily on Podcast Ads
OpenAI spent an estimated $11.2 million on podcast ads over the past three months, according to Bloomberg, and OpenAI and Anthropic together spent more than $13 million, per Podscribe data cited by Bloomberg. OpenAI also bought the tech talk show “TBPN” earlier this year.
Simmons has not said whether The Ringer will take ads from other AI companies, or whether OpenAI ads will continue to run on Ringer shows as standard ad reads.
Nii A. Ahene is the founder and managing director of Net Influencer, a website dedicated to offering insights into the influencer marketing industry. Together with its newsletter, Influencer Weekly, Net Influencer provides news, commentary, and analysis of the events shaping the creator and influencer marketing space. Through interviews with startups, influencers, brands, and platforms, Nii and his team explore how influencer marketing is being effectively used to benefit businesses and personal brands alike.
Bill Simmons, founder and CEO of the Spotify-owned podcast network The Ringer, canceled a sponsorship with OpenAI’s ChatGPT after listeners objected to AI-driven segments built into its shows, according to a November 12 Bloomberg report by Ashley Carman.
In a statement to Bloomberg, Simmons said The Ringer had tried to “integrate AI research for baked-in content segments for a couple of our shows the way some of our competitors were doing (and also leagues like the NFL were doing)” starting last spring. “I’m always going to try to be early instead of late on something,” Simmons said. “This time we learned almost immediately that those segments weren’t a fit for us,” Simmons added, saying “our audience just didn’t like them.”
The sponsored segments ran mainly on “The Bill Simmons Podcast” and “The Ringer Fantasy Football Show,” Awful Announcing reported on August 18. On the August 17 episode about Russell Westbrook’s retirement, a segment on the guard’s defining game was introduced as “brought to you by ChatGPT, the Bill Simmons Podcast AI sponsor.” ChatGPT picked an April 2017 Thunder game against the Denver Nuggets. The fantasy hosts used it to pull players’ average draft positions and other statistics.
The reaction was visible within days. The top five Spotify comments on the Westbrook episode were all teasing or criticizing the segment, according to the same report, and the top post on the r/billsimmons subreddit that day was titled “The ChatGPT of it all kind of makes me want to stop listening.” Bloomberg did not report the value of the deal or the date it ended. ChatGPT’s ad copy ran in the notes of four “Bill Simmons Podcast” episodes in August, the last on August 25, and has not appeared in the 35 episodes published since, according to a Net Influencer review of the show’s podcast feed.
AI Companies Are Spending Heavily on Podcast Ads
OpenAI spent an estimated $11.2 million on podcast ads over the past three months, according to Bloomberg, and OpenAI and Anthropic together spent more than $13 million, per Podscribe data cited by Bloomberg. OpenAI also bought the tech talk show “TBPN” earlier this year.
Listener research points to the risk. In Edison Research’s “The Podcast Consumer 2026,” 62% of weekly podcast consumers said AI poses at least some threat to podcast credibility. Heather Osgood, whose True Native Media brokers host-read campaigns, told Net Influencer in June that vetting each host is what gives host-read ads their effectiveness.
Simmons has not said whether The Ringer will take ads from other AI companies, or whether OpenAI ads will continue to run on Ringer shows as standard ad reads.
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