In the latest of its analyses of the Voxnest Audience Network, Voxnest has laid out a snapshot of top-earning podcast categories. The Voxnest Audience Network (VAN) represents 138-million monthly plays (streams and downloads).
In this lens, the top money-making podcast category is Sports. Interestingly, Voxnest says the top earnings hour for the Sports category is 7:00am in the U.S.
Here is the entire list with Voxnest commentary:
- Sports (Ads in this category generate most revenue at 7 a.m.)
It’s not a huge surprise to see this category at the top of the list. While Ad Age reports a decrease in the cost to advertise during NFL games on TV last year, Sunday Night Football remains the most popular show to buy at ad spot on at “over $700,000 a pop.” Seeing the carryover to podcasting is natural for our sports-obsessed culture. Although, it’s interesting to see that ads are most valuable during the morning, when intuition says otherwise. - Culture (Ads in this category generate the most revenue at 8 a.m.)
As mentioned in our last report, Culture is a vague category, but once you understand that true crime shows are categorized under this umbrella, it’s easy to understand why this category grabbed the number two spot on our list. - History (Ads in this category generate the most revenue at 10 p.m.)
It’s no secret that people listen to podcasts to learn, and the history category continues to top the list as most listened to, so it’s no surprise that this category finds itself a top ad earner. As we’ve reported on before, history podcast consumers love to listen late at night, which is why 10 p.m. is the most valuable ad time. - Politics (Ads in this category generate the most revenue at 5 p.m.)
With the increasingly interesting political day-to-day that we live in, this category has shot up in revenue earnings recently. We anticipate the number of ad dollars to only increase as the 2020 presidential election approaches. - Comedy (Ads in this category generate the most revenue at 7 a.m.)
Amongst some heavier topics in the list, it’s nice to see that light-heartedness is getting some love, too. PodcastingInsights.com reports that comedy is the most popular category of 2019, so while it’s in our top five list here, it’s interesting to see that the potential top category is only in the fifth spot regarding revenue.