Podtrac has released the May edition of the measurement company’s Top Podcast Publishers ranker. (See graphic below.)
iHeartRadio resides in the #1 spot, closely followed by NPR. The ranker shows the number of active shows owned by each of the publishers. We observe that iHeartRadio seems to be benefitting from a steady increase in its network size. In May Podtrac counted 404 shows belonging to iHR. In March that number was 387; in December it was 349.
Conversely, NPR is concentrating its impressive 209-million monthly downloads into 48 shows. In February NPR counted 64 shows, and 70 shows in December. So we see two strategies in motion — one not better than the other, but certainly different — one involving network expansion, the other network concentration.
Podtrac makes these observations for the May ranker:
- All but one of the top 20 publishers saw an increase in US monthly Audience in May over April.
- All but two top 20 publishers saw positive growth in their Global Download numbers from April to May.
- The average Unique Monthly Audience for the top 10 publishers increased by 15% from April while it increased by 22% from May of 2019.
- Global Unique Streams & Downloads increased for the top 10 publishers by 7% over April and increased by 52% over May 2019.
Here is the ranker graphic:
