The periodic podcast reports from leading technology and metrics companies create a drumbeat that sounds nearly identical month after month. Changes in ranking order are rare in the top 10 or 20 measurement slots, no matter what the metric. The latest from Triton Digital shows a shift in the #1 spot, which is noteworthy, if not material to the businesses involved.
Triton’s report works in a succession of four-week periods, and the latest covers May 3 through May 30, following the previous report span of March 29 through May 2. In the latest, Stitcher Media takes over the #1 network position from NPR by count of average weekly downloads. The margin could hardly be statistically slimmer: 35.3-million average weekly downloads over NPR’s count of 35.1-million.
Worth noting that Stitcher publishes 459 active podcasts, while NPR’s compact portfolio numbers 55 for this reporting period. That means Stitcher averages about 77,000 weekly downloads per show, while NPR averages about 638,000 downloads per show. That’s a big difference in strategic network tactics and execution.
As with other server-side rankers, the Triton Digital product measures only Triton clients. Notably, iHeartRadio is not included … even though iHeart owns Triton. We’ll keep an eye on how long that peculiarity lasts.
Another note: NPR is the top network (Stitcher #2) in the audience size ranker which is included in the periodic release.
In the Triton ranker of individual podcasts, NPR holds the top spot with its NPR News Hour — a show released 24 times each day, which almost seems unfair to include in a ranker — but, a show is a show. Stitcher takes the #6 spot with My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstock (are we the only trade publication that wishes host names weren’t part of podcast titles?). The show ranker is a top-100 list, so naturally both networks have several placements.
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