Giggly Squad just landed at SiriusXM. The bidding war reportedly hit $150 million.

SiriusXM just bought a nine-figure asset that started as a pandemic Instagram Live. On September 17, the satellite radio giant announced a four-year exclusive deal with Giggly Squad, the top-ranked comedy podcast hosted by former Summer House cast members Hannah Berner and Paige DeSorbo. The bidding war reportedly hit $150M across three suitors. Legacy audio just paid MrBeast-adjacent money for two women, a mic, and 44M downloads worth of loyalty.

What actually happened?

SiriusXM will exclusively distribute Giggly Squad on its SiriusXM Podcast Network and hold exclusive global ad sales rights across the audio and video editions, per the company's investor release. Episodes remain on YouTube and standard podcast apps like Apple and Spotify, but the ad money now routes through SiriusXM. New Giggly Squad universe programming, presumably spinoffs and video-first shows, is slated to roll out in 2027. Additional details are being held for a later announcement.

The price tag came from Like & Subscribe's Natalie Jarvey, who reported three bidders circling this summer: SiriusXM, Amazon, and incumbent Acast, with multiple offers around $150M. Acast just renewed Giggly Squad's exclusive advertising deal in summer 2025. One bidding cycle later, the incumbent got outbid by a satellite radio company that has spent the last three years buying up creator IP.

Why does this matter for creators?

Two ex-Bravo cast members just repriced the celebrity-podcast market. Berner and DeSorbo started Giggly Squad as a free Instagram Live during COVID lockdowns, launched officially on Acast on October 27, 2020, and crossed 44M downloads before ever selling exclusive rights. They never signed a network talent deal. They own the IP outright.

That is the flywheel every creator platform is chasing. Audience owns the trust, the creator owns the IP, and distributors pay a premium for exclusive access instead of hiring talent on salary. It is the inverse of the old Hollywood contract, where a network owned the show and the talent was a line item. In this version, Hannah and Paige are the network.

What are the hosts actually saying?

"We're so excited for this next chapter with SiriusXM. Giggly Squad has grown beyond anything we could have imagined and getting to experience that growth with the Gigglers has made it even more special."

Hannah Berner and Paige DeSorbo, co-hosts, via The Hollywood Reporter

Where does this go from here?

SiriusXM president Scott Greenstein telegraphed the strategy in the release: put the company's infrastructure behind what the pair have built and expand the universe. Translation: SiriusXM is not buying a podcast. They are buying a franchise that has already delivered a New York Times bestselling book (How to Giggle), a sold-out 70-city Club Giggly tour with two nights at Radio City Music Hall, and a Netflix scripted comedy series from Amy Poehler and Kay Cannon greenlit earlier in 2026.

Legacy audio is now competing with Amazon and Spotify for creator IP the same way streamers competed for showrunners a decade ago. Berner already has a Netflix stand-up special (We Ride at Dawn) that premiered at #2 on the platform in July 2024. Both hosts landed on the inaugural TIME100 Creators list in 2025. Expect the 2027 slate to look less like a spinoff podcast and more like an integrated bundle of live tours, video shorts, merch drops, and maybe a dedicated channel.

What does Fanvault think?

The Berner-DeSorbo arc is the ceiling of the creator-owned playbook. Two independents turned six years of audience trust into a nine-figure auction where the buyer is desperate and the seller sets the terms. That leverage does not require a Netflix special to unlock. It requires a creator to actually own their audience and their revenue stack, not lease it back from a platform that keeps 15% or 20% of every dollar.

Fanvault takes 8%, creators keep 92%, and the storefront, memberships, DMs, and drops all live in one account the creator controls end to end. Not every creator gets a SiriusXM bidding war, but every creator deserves the economics that make one possible.

Two women who came off a reality show turned a pandemic Instagram Live into a nine-figure IP in under six years. That's not a bidding war. That's a business model.