This Week in the Business of Podcasting
I’m back from Orlando! Not a lick of a tan because it’s January and overcast but you bet your bottom dollar I had some good food and saw some passionate podcasters. Now that I’ve tapped the sand off my shoes and am back at the desk, let’s look at this week’s news.
Transparency. Performance. Automation.
Meeting Buyers Where the Audiences Are
This Wednesday, Tom Webster discussed the promising Acast ad run on a recent episode of The Telepathy Tapes. The ad itself is specifically for the premise of running ads on Acast podcasts, aimed at buyers looking for somewhere effective to run their campaigns. Digital Out of Home advertising has done this since the beginning, regularly running ads simply for the billboards, taxi cab interiors, and gas pumps the screens themselves are attached to.
A quote from Webster: “Something that the best DOOH vehicles have in common is that they frequently ALSO promote the channel as an effective place to advertise. After all, at least some subset of the humans getting on those elevators in NYC running ads on the Captivate network, or in Ubers running Enroute screens, are potential buyers of advertising. And those of you who talk to agency teams and other buyers about podcasting have probably been told (even in the middle of an objection) that those buyers listen to podcasts themselves. If that is the case, then perhaps one of the best ways we can reach those buyers is using the best arrow in our quiver: our great content.”
The classic “do billboards work? This one just did” style ad recognizes that everyday audiences also include the buyers who will use the advertising as intended, and podcasting would do well to embrace that more.
Highlighting the Strengths (and Weaknesses) of Going Video
This Thursday, Eric Silver and Amanda McLoughlin of Multitude have filmed the production of an audio podcast to demonstrate how the strengths of spoken word cannot be maintained 1:1 if an audio-first podcast simply has a camera added to the production.
The two biggest takeaways are editing and performance. On the editing side, cuts that would be invisible in audio are now jarring and obvious in the video format. It takes significantly more time and effort to maintain shot continuity, if even possible, when a visual element is introduced. In terms of performance, Silver noted, “I act differently when a camera is on me! I felt self-conscious when I was perceived visually after podcasting without it for so long.”
While video podcasting is proven to work, simply grafting an audio production into video undercuts the strengths of both mediums and can pull focus from the content audiences are truly here to enjoy.
Looking Back at the Podcast Election
Tuesday morning, Bloomberg Technology dropped a sizable article authored by seven writers on the political utility of ‘manosphere’ video podcasts in the Trump reelection campaign. Research for the piece included Bloomberg writers consuming and analyzing over 2,000 videos from nine prominent YouTubers, including Logan Paul, Joe Rogan, Lex Fridman, and Theo Von. A quote from the piece:
“Reporters reviewed nearly 1,300 hours of footage from their channels, mapped out the podcasters’ guest networks and quantified the frequency of key political messages that they distributed to tens of millions of subscribers each day.”
In addition, Ashley Carman’s latest edition of Soundbite covers the D.C. podcasting scene during inauguration weekend. Meanwhile, Oxford Road has published a new report titled The Untold Story of The Podcast Election, a five page brief on what their data shows in regards to podcasts both candidates appeared on, how advertisers performed on those episodes, and how podcast dollars work harder than TV, social, and digital.
Netflix’s Ad-Supported Tier Pays Off in 2024
This Tuesday from Sahil Patel at The Information: Netflix has published their Q4 report with membership statistics. According to the company, they added 19 million subscribers across the quarter, taking them to 302 million global Netflix subscribers in 2024. All of which amounted to the company breaking $2.3 billion in operating income. Success which is in part attributed to the recent lean into live sporting events, including the Jake Paul v. Mike Tyson boxing match and Christmas Day NFL games.
According to AdExchanger coverage from Alyssa Boyle, Netflix doubled its annual ad revenue in 2024 and expects to double it again this year. A quote from Boyle:
“Sign-ups are spiking because more people are subscribing to Netflix’s ad tier to save money – and because Netflix has been kicking moochers off of shared accounts for more than a year.”
55% of new Netflix subscribers in Q4 signed up for the ad-supported tier, showing the efficacy of ad-supported content. To which we point out podcasting remains largely ad-supported and, as a bonus, is still free.
Quick Hits
While they may not be top story material, the articles below from this week are definitely worth your time:
- The 2025 Podcast Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Presented by Libsyn Last week at the Podfest Multimedia Expo, Sounds Profitable’s own Tom Webster was the final inductee of the night into the Podcast Hall of Fame.
- 2025 Outlook: A Snapshot into Ad Spend, Opportunities, and Strategies for Growth The IAB has published their forecast for advertising in 2025, a highlight being that podcasting is forecast to grow 7.4% this year.
- Podscribe has launched its new Audience Overlap feature, which lets users evaluate listener duplication across channels, shows, campaigns, and publishers
- 142 Million Opportunities for Podcasting in 2025 By Paul Riismandel A new Signal Hill Insights piece looking at opportunities for podcasting in 2025, including a bigger, more socio-economically diverse podcasting audience that would mean more opportunity for podcasting overall.
- Streaming giant Spotify debuts courses on Spotify to explore ‘ambitions’ Signs point to Spotify gearing up to launch their Courses offering in the U.S. after a pilot program in the UK
- The Trade Desk buys ad-tech intelligence firm Sincera By Ryan Barwick In the company’s first acquisition since 2017, The Trade Desk has acquired ad-tech data platform Sincera in a move that’ll have co-founder and CEO Mike O’Sullivan report directly to TTD CEO Jeff Green.
