Almost exactly three years after forging an alliance of podcast networks, Australia’s NOVA Entertrainment and Sweden-based Acast are separating their assets and cooperative selling operation. The announcement comes a week after NOVA CEO Cathy O’Connor resigned her position to take a role with Aussie/NZ out-of-home ad company oOh!media. (<< not a typo.) Continue Reading
In a new release schedule, Podtrac is distributing the Top Podcasts and Top Podcast Publishers rankers simultaneously today. In the Top Podcasts list, we see a general month-over-month stability. Among top podcast publishers, NPR and iHeartRadio continued their 1/2 dance with NPR taking the #1 slot this month by a sliver. Tap through for complete details. Continue Reading
Pod Drop features new and returning podcasts. Today — new immersive SciFi, a heralded return of a beloved show, and (mostly) SFW sex adventures. Click through for details and audio trailers. Continue Reading
Westwood One has released its fifth annual podcast advertising study, in collaboration with Advertiser Perceptions. This report is synced with the IAB Podcast Upfront, also in its fifth year. One key takeaway is that advertiser interest in podcasts, and intent to buy, have grown by multiples since 2015. Click through for details, numbers, links, and charts. Continue Reading
Signal Hill Insights President Jeff Vidler contributes this very interesting column about Apple’s interesting movement toward traditional radio. “It’s interesting that Apple’s latest foray into audio is a doubling down on the old school notion of human-hosted, human-curated radio.” What does it mean for broadcast radio, if anything? Jeff does some blue-sky thinking. Continue Reading
Patreon, the patronage crowdfunding platform, is now valued over $1-billion, the threshold for “unicorn” status — a popular venture-capital term for companies which stand at a pinnacle in their niches. The milestone is publicized in the wake of a recent fundraising round which yielded $100-million based on a valuation of $1.2-billion. Click through for examples of high podcast earners in podcasting. Continue Reading
A new podcast networking platform, Wildcast, is launching today to facilitate networking among hosts and guests. The main function is to help podcasts find guests, and the reverse, to help people with knowledge or a message to find podcast guesting opportunities. Beyond that core purpose, the overriding mission is networking of whatever type is helpful to the industry. The site is operating free of charge for a preliminary launch period. Continue Reading
As reported, The Joe Rogan Experience — the world’s most successful podcast by many measures — has landed in the Spotify app. Thus marks the start of this well publicized exclusive distribution deal. Except … not exclusive yet. We are still able to play Rogan in other podcast apps. That’s not totally unexpected; the publicized deal details did note that episodes would persist for some amount of time before lowering the gate. There’s another peculiarity, though: Not all the episodes have made it into Spotify, according to reports. Speculation of censorship is circulating. Continue Reading
This appears to be a short-term partnership, at least to start — iHeartMedia and The Recount plan to launch three new political podcasts focused on the upcoming election. Perhaps the podcasts will continue post-election, but the stated launch rationale is “to inform voters’ decisions and actions leading up to this historic moment.” The Recount is a media platform best known for its The Daily Recount video series. Click through for descriptions of the new shows. Continue Reading
From the UK comes news of a new podcast network: Crowd Network, whose mandate is “gripping stories and unforgettable personalities.” The launch is funded by 500,000 GBP from Enigma Holdings. Podcast tech and sales company Acast is partnered into the… Continue Reading
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has revealed the host of this year’s Podcast Upfront. This year’s event is virtual, and will be hosted by actress and comedian Franchesca Ramsey. The event transpires over three days next week: September 9-11. Three co-hosts will join Ramsey in managing a sprawling presentation of podcast advertising opportunities. Click through for much more detail. Continue Reading
In a data-rich blog post informed by Magellan AI research, Westwood One has published a raft of research findings about podcast advertising. The headline is that podcast advertising is “pandemic proof,” based on the field’s resiliency from pandemic disruption. The study examines month-over-month and quarterly trendlines to track the stability of podcast advertising, a consistently low spot load (to use a radio term), and the continued emergence of brand advertising. Click through for numbers and graphics. Continue Reading