Today in the Business of Podcasting
AM/FM Radio And Podcasts Can Recapture Lost TV Reach Due To Writers/Actors Strike As 22% Of The Heavy Linear TV Audience Say They Will Watch Less TV This Fall by Pierre Bouvard
According to a MARU/ Matchbox National Study from late August, of 1,003 respondents, 27% of respondents say they’ll watch less linear TV this fall season due to increased re-runs of old content, game shows, and reality TV. Among those who said they’ll watch less TV due to strike-altered content, 68% said they intend to replace TV watching time with listening to podcasts, music, and AM/FM radio. Using Nielsen Commspoint data from 2021, Bouvard demonstrates that moving 20% of a $4 million TV campaign’s budget to AM/FM radio increases reach with people aged 25-54 by 70%. As Sounds Profitable’s The Medium Moves the Message study demonstrated back in March, podcasting was getting close to TV’s weekly reach with viewers 18-34 before the strike started. As fall TV slowdown kicks in, audio’s already-valuable contributions to multimedia ad buys potentially will grow even more. [Source]
This Is Not My Beautiful Host Read Ad. How Did I Get Here? By Paul Riismandel.
Paul Riismandel tackles two widely-held beliefs in podcasting: podcast ads outperform any kind of ad, and host-read is the best kind of podcast ad. Reflecting back to 2013, podcast advertising at the time still largely consisted of brands getting fresh ad copy to podcasts just in time for that week’s episode. Host-read became the norm not by design, but by happenstance. Riismandel argues the industry has matured to the point it’s time to recognize podcasting’s strengths in advertising aren’t because podcasting is magically endowed. Each tool has its own strengths and weaknesses, including such heretical truths as the fact that he has seen announcer-read generate more lift than host-read in certain situations. The way forward is to invest in research and understand why podcasting advertising’s happy accidents work and leverage that for repeatable, scaleable success. [Source]
Substack writers are launching podcasts on the platform to ease reliance on ad revenue by Sara Guaglione
With the growing popularity of paid podcast subscription options comes more options for newsletter writers. Four Substack writers told Digiday a major appeal of monetizing podcasts through subscriptions is that independent writers don’t have to worry about ad market fluctuations or brand safety concerns. Substack takes 10% of subscription revenue on podcasts hosted in their platform. Writers are able to leverage existing newsletter audiences to give a companion podcast traffic, while publishers with established podcasts like Bloody Elbow report their podcast paid subscription growth has even begun to outpace paid newsletter subscriptions. [Source]
NASA to release first full season of Spanish-language podcast by Reem Makari
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s stable of podcasts grows to 18 this month with the launch of Universo curioso de la NASA, a new Spanish-language podcast launched in time with Hispanic Heritage Month in the US. The five-episode season, hosted by Goddard Space Flight Center communications specialist Noelia González, explores the history and contributions of NASA’s Hispanic and Latino workforce. According to Edison Resaerch’s Latino Podcast Listener Report in 2022, 34% of the Latino population in the US are monthly podcast listeners, just 5% lower than the average US population. There’s demand for podcasts natively in Spanish as the medium grows and reaches wider audiences, and NASA is targeting that demand. [Source]
…as for the rest of the news: Steve Pratt talks to Tom Webster about why you don’t deserve an audience, Nairobi News reports the top podcasts in Kenya according to Spotify data, and eMarketer data shows that despite reaching 11% of US adult daily media time, only 4.9% of US ad spend is forecasted to go to audio.
