Podcast companies see signs of an improved ad market in 2024 by Sara Guaglione
It’s once again earnings call season, and four biggies in podcasting have posted their numbers for Q4 2023. iHeartMedia, Spotify, SiriusXM, and Acast all report their podcast revenue had positive year-over-year growth in the quarter, and a consistent message among company executives was signs of an improving advertising market heading into this year. Cumulus Media’s earnings call reported an 8% loss in podcasting y-o-y, but noted improvement in the back half of 2023. [Source]
Audio Advertising State Of The Nation 2024
IAB Australia has published their eight edition of the Audio Advertising State of the Nation. The report, prepared from IAB Australia’s Online Advertising Expenditure Report by PwC Australia, finds podcasting accounted for $99.1 million AUD expenditure. The total Australian online audio advertising market amounted to $265.8m AUD, representing 4.6% of total 2023 expenditure for general display advertising. [Source]
Podcast CPMs Increased in February.
AdvertiseCast has updated their monthly tracker of podcast advertising CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) to include February’s data. The average price of a 60 second ad spot across all audience size brackets is $22.00, an increase of thirty cents in January. To put that into historical context, the highest podcast CPM average on AdvertiseCast since the tracker started in January of 2020 was $25.40 in January of 2022, and the lowest valley was $21.06 in September of 2020. With the February uptick, podcast CPMs are starting to climb back up in the direction of 2023’s peak price: $23.34 in March. [Source]
Newsguard debuts new automation tools for tracking election-related misinformation by Marty Swant
With a new presidential election season in the U.S. comes a renewed threat of political disinformation campaigns. In preparation, news rating service Newsguard has launched their Election Misinformation Tracking Center. The center uses Newsguard developed AI-assisted tools as an early detection system for election-related misinformation. The goal of the database is to log misinformation and all possible associated metadata, including related search terms, to create a fingerprint that can then be used to track down sources of harmful content. Newsguard reports seeing a higher percentage of misinformation using manipulated media, such as doctored images and audio clips. Something for the wider podcasting industry to keep in mind as the election cycle spins up. With newer and better generative AI tools becoming available by the week, it’s never been easier or cheaper to produce convincing audio. [Source]
CoHost Pro Podcaster Research Survey
CoHost, the podcast analytics platform and audience insights platform created by Quill, is conducting a survey for professional podcasters. The form, currently available until March 15th, aims to collect information about podcasting challenges, wins, and key experiences. The survey takes about five minutes to fill out, and the link is here!
New Additions
We’re adding a new occasional segment to The Download to specifically spotlight new hires and podcast deals in the industry. First up on this inaugural New Additions:
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Former Stitcher and iHeartMedia executive Sarah van Mosel has been hired as SVP of Podcast Strategy at SiriusXM
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Vox has a couple new podcasts coming, having recently signed partnership deals with Washington Post columnist Taylor Lorenz for a new video podcast and Julia Longoria for a new podcast in collaboration with Future Perfect.
…as for the rest of the news:
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Spreaker has launched a new podcast web player. Check out how it looks here.
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IAB Australia has published the Crime Pays Report, a look into the audiences of True Crime podcasts and advertising opportunities therein.
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And Serial, podcasting’s closest contender for song of the summer, has announced their fourth season will debut March 28th and will revolve around the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
