Apple reportedly planning to fund creation of exclusive original podcasts

Apple is said to be planning to bankroll the creation of original podcasts from third-parties that it will offer exclusively on its own streaming services, Bloomberg reports. The report says that Apple's plans to land podcast exclusives will help the company compete with similar offerings from streaming rivals, including Spotify and Stitcher, both of which are funding exclusive podcast content, and, in some cases, wholly original shows to run on their own streaming audio offerings. The report says that Apple execs have been reaching out to media companies that produce audio content to talk about the possibility of buying exclusive rights to some podcasts, albeit in a "preliminary" way, which suggests that this plan may be in the very early stages.