Comprehensive coverage of the podcasting industry and its business ecosystem.
Signal Hill Insights President Jeff Vidler contributes this very interesting column about how to program (radio and podcasts) for the COVID and post-COVID eras. He notes that radio has worked its way through reinventions before — in the 1950s and 1970s. During those transitions, radio invented new station categories to address changes in audience and listening routines. A must-read. Continue Reading
Wonder Media Network, the podcast content company whose mission is to amplify underrepresented voices, has signed with WME (the talent agency part of the broader Endeavor company). WME will exclusively represent WMN, and help the young network diversify into books, TV, and other categories. Continue Reading
An item in today’s Podnews nudged our attention to the New York Times Q2 earnings statement. As Podnews mentioned, the Times disclosed that its leading podcast effort The Daily (the top news podcast in the U.S., and one of the most successful podcasts across categories) serves 3.5-million downloads per daily episode. We do some back-of-envelope math to estimate annual revenue. Click through for meeting quotes about podcast strategy at the Times. Continue Reading
The Hidden Brain podcast, hosted by Shankar Vedantam, has moved its ad representation exclusively to Midroll Media, the ad sales division of Stitcher. (Stitcher has recently been acquired by SiriusXM, from E.W. Scripps, in a deal which will close by Q3). Alongside this deal, Hidden Brain will be produced independently by Hidden Brain Media, starting October 1. The podcast will continue to be distributed by NPR. It’s a chart success — click through to see its placements.
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In eMarketer’s latest projection of ad revenue to podcasting, the market research company forecasts two headline points: 1) Podcasting ad revenue will surpass $1-billion in 2021, and 2) Podcast ad revenue will capture 20% of digital radio ad spending in 2020. Click through for a chart and the company’s forecast of programmatic ad buying in podcasting. Continue Reading
Pandora is announcing that its Alexa “skill” set now includes podcast listening and controls. In addition to the basic hook-up between Alexa and Pandora’s podcasts, the new skill set includes a request for a specific episode (“Alexa, play the latest episode of Ted Talks Daily”), requesting an episode by topic (“Alexa, play the Ted Talks Daily episode about procrastination”) and using playback controls for hands-free podcast control while in the skill. Continue Reading
We learned from Engadget that Mark and Jay Duplass have signed with Spotify to create Spotify-exclusive podcasts. This is not presented as an acquisition of the Duplass Brothers Productions firm, but that detail is unclear. What does seem clear is that the two men will jointly create new shows for Spotify, exclusively for Spotify distribution. Continue Reading
Podcast tech and attribution company Chartable has launched a feature called SmartPromos, which traces listener action from hearing an ad for a podcast, to downloading that advertised podcast.The intelligence behind this technology can be helpful to advertisers as well. Continue Reading
American Public media (APM) has sent PR descriptions of two new podcasts, and one returning show. The return is season two of Spectacular Failures, which is described as “ridiculous stories of business disasters. The new season drops on August 3. No trailer yet. One new show features comedian Tig Nagaro. The other comes from Marketplace and is a children’s show. Continue Reading
Triton Digital has released its U.S. Podcast Report, an every-four-week rolling weekly average of downloads and listeners. This report covers the June 8 through July 5 period. Things look pretty much the same as the previous report, for the top 15 podcast networks. NPR is on top for average weekly downloads and listeners. Stitcher remains #2 for downloads, and moves up to #2 (displacing Entercom/Cadence13/Pineapple Street Studios to #3 — but we think Entercom/Cadence13/Pineapple Street Studios should win a special prize for longest network name). Click through to see the Top 15 Networks. Continue Reading
Comedian and media producer Will Ferrell is partnering with iHeartRadio to make a new podcast network with an opening slate of six shows. “The iHeartPodcast Network really knows how to make a podcast.” said Ferrell. The new group is called Big Money Players Network. Click through for show notes. Continue Reading
The New York Times has acquired Serial Productions, home to legendary podcast Serial. Both organizations have attained critical, audience, and monetary success with sparse portfolios. the Times promises to grow the Serial Productions catalog, which currently contains two active podcasts according to Podtrac. Click through for more analysis and acquisition details. Continue Reading