Curve Media to launch podcast arm

Fact ent specialist Curve Media is to launch a podcast arm and is gearing up for its first series focusing on the topic of infidelity, Broadcast can has learned. 

Podcast arm Curve Sounds will be run by Naomi Channell who will remain in her current role as a producer. Channell has independently presented her own true crime podcast series Real for two years.  

The first podcast – set to launch early next year - is The Affair…With Anna Williamson, hosted by Celebs Go Dating star and relationship therapist Anna Williamson. Williamson has also presented the podcast LuAnna alongside Luisa Zissman since 2020, exceeding 1m downloads per month.  

The Affair… will explore the taboo topic of modern-day affairs, which one in five people admit to having. Each episode will highlight a real-life story, told by the key protagonists who discuss the causes, emotions and consequences of their affair. 

Williamson said: “I am really looking forward to delving into an area of relationship conflict that is rarely talked about and has been long shrouded in stigma and judgement.   

“I want to unpack what’s going on for people involved in an affair, why it happens, what the different perspectives are, and with my naturally curious mind, help bring my guests and listeners to a place of clarity and peace.” 

Curve’s chief executive Camilla Lewis told Broadcast that launching a podcast arm is part of the indie’s aim to diversify in a “to gh” year for TV.  

“As an industry, we have all got to find new ways of getting out there, being a bit riskier and thinking differently about content. We need to have a lot more confidence in ourselves that we can find new ways to make it work,” she said. 

Lewis added that podcasts can also be a way to test out potential TV ideas and “put the fun back into our work by doing things we find interesting”.  

She said: “I have been fascinated in the topic of affairs for many years because they feature in almost every scripted programme, yet in the unscripted world we are still in the Middle Ages about our moralistic approach to how we show them, as if they don’t affect most people.  

“This is a massive area of opportunity to examine human relationships in all their messiness, and I expect there is a big audience for it.” 

Curve Media is behind TV shows including the upcoming BBC2 competition series Chess Masters, Quest returner Salvage Hunters and Michael Portillo travelogues for Channel 5.