iHeartMedia Debuts Improved Brand Safety Tech

Audio company iHeartMedia debuted on Monday a new tool, developed in partnership with brand safety vendor Sounder, that scores the brand safety of every podcast in its catalog on an episodic level, according to chief data officer and president of revenue strategies Brian Kaminsky.

The unnamed tool uses machine-learning technology to assess the brand safety of individual podcast episodes by combing through their transcripts, then evaluating them against the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) standards and the list of sensitive topic categories created by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).