UK-based global podcast company Audioboom released first-half earnings. The key performance indicators are unanimously sunny:
- H1 revenue added up to $34.1 million. (And we thank Audioboom for translating it currency for U.S. consumption.)
- Revenue per thousand downloads in Q2: $60.09, up 38% from the same quarter in 2023. “Audioboom continues to maximize the value it extracts from downloads versus its peers,” the company brags.
- Audioboom served 8,062 brand advertisers in Q2, about the same as Q2 2023.
- Over $65M in revenue for 2024 — impressively, that is more than the total booked revenue in 2023.
The company complained about Apple’s iOS17 update in late 2023, which affected download counts across the industry.
CEO Comments
Stuart Last, Audioboom CEO, provides commentary on his company’s financial results, below. He emphasizes Showcase, Audioboom’s self-serve global marketplace which joins podcasters and advertisers. (RAIN coverage HERE.) His company says that SHOWCASE represents over 250-million podcast impressions per month for ad buyers.
“We have delivered these results despite the double-whammy of the advertising market recession now being followed by deep cuts to our advertising inventory due to Apple’s iOS17 update, which changed how listeners download content. These external impacts are frustrating – with the iOS17 change restricting our revenue in the first half of the year by an estimated US$9 million.
“Our revenue growth for H1 is in line with the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Podcast Revenue Study forecasts for the industry, and we do expect our growth rate to substantially improve across the second half of the year. We have more than US$65 million of advertising bookings in place – the same level as the entirety of last year’s revenue – which means, with more than 5 months of the year remaining, all future bookings will translate directly to growth.
“Showcase – our ad-tech driven marketplace – continues to build impressively. In June we delivered more than US$2 million of revenue through the product for the first time, and it now contributes more than 27% of our Group revenue. This performance is fuelled by our technology innovation as well as the early-stage work of our recently launched brand awareness sales unit.”