Spotify’s Place in Podcasting, Podcasts’ Retail Strength, & More

Of Mice and Megaphone by Bryan Barletta

Barletta takes a look at recent decisions by Spotify and how they impact podcasting. By leaving the IAB, downloads on Megaphone can no longer be squared with IAB-compliant downloads, and “ad delivery” is also now without meaning. Barletta encourages publishers on Megaphone to shop around and compare recent Spotify Ad Network income to IAB-certified hosting platforms to see if there’s a better option, as well as calls for certified hosts to call Spotify back to the certification process. [Source]

Editor’s note: In the original publication of this newsletter PRX’s Dovetail platform was not included in the list of IAB certified hosting. This has since been rectified.

Sequencing Retail Messaging With Podcasts by Tom Webster

In addition to podcasting’s tried-and-true power of moving promo codes and bespoke urls with direct response marketing, the industry is effective in moving customers along in their journey from awareness to purchase when it comes to larger, more complex sales. Webster highlights research from The Ad Bargain to discuss customer perceptions of podcast advertising, as well as YouTube and TV. Podcasting’s strengths lie in the middle to lower sections of the purchase funnel. [Source]

Podcasts continue to grow in popularity in UK as BBC reveals data insights by Bron Maher

Last week at Podcast Show London the BBC shared data that combined both their own research and third party data from Of com and RAJAR, all of which combined to show a 139% growth in the number of UK residents listening to podcasts from 2018 to 2023. The only demographic to have lower weekly podcast consumption than before the COVID-19 pandemic is 15-24 year-olds. Though it is worth noting that’s also one of the least-available demographics to consistently analyze. [Source]

Apple update disrupts podcast downloads, but blow is softened for some stations by Tyler Falk

Last fall Apple published an update to iOS 17 that rectified an issue with how automatic downloads were handled in Apple Podcasts, impacting statistics for several publishers in the process. While download numbers did drop when unintended auto-downloads were taken away, new listener acquisition continues to grow. New Hampshire Public Radio’s Rebecca Lavoie reports the station has seen “nothing but growth” since the iOS update. NPR overall has also adjusted to offset the download decrease, upping the cadence of sponsorship breaks in certain podcasts and how many episodes are released a week for popular series like Pop Culture Happy Hour. [Source]

What Netflix’s Latest Data Dump Means for Advertisers by Bill Bradley

Netflix has published the second installment of its What We Watched Report which contains 99% of the viewership data on the platform from July to December of 2023. While interesting, researchers like Forrester vice president Max Proulx highlight that it’s purely self-reported data. Data that would benefit from third-party verification to validate it before companies make any investment decisions. [Source]

…as for the rest of the news: