➽From podnews.net, your complete daily briefing for podcasting and on-demand. Subscribe to get the full newsletter free
Friday, May 9, 2025
How much did PodX Group pay for their acquisition of Lemonada Media)? Around $30mn, says Ashley Carman, in her newsletter Soundbite. She reports that QCODE has achieved fresh funding, and that Goalhanger looks set to get funding from The Chernin Group. (Podnews readers get 25% off Soundbite for the first year using this link)
Podtrac released its US podcast rankers for April. The Daily Wire slipped below Paramount; there are few other changes, and numbers are mostly flat.
- Spanish-language news podcast Noticentro raised some eyebrows last month by appearing at #6 in the Podtrac chart. Noticentro publishes 18 episodes most days (one every hour); but the podcast chart is based on unique audience, not total downloads. It’s nowhere to be seen this month.
Sounds Profitable’s Tom Webster released more data from The Advertising Landscape on podcasting’s “fans” - and “anti-fans” - those who listen a lot, and those who are not regular consumers. There’s a clear gender gap; and middle-aged people (35-54) are most likely to be fans of podcasts. It’s data that might help us grow the medium further.
The largest podcast platform in the Middle East and North Africa, Podeo has signed an partnership deal with SMC Group. SMC Group will serve as Podeo’s exclusive advertising sales partner in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Castos has added integration with Apple Podcasts Subscriptions. The deep integration allows individual episodes to be marked as paid or free; you can also use Castos Commerce for direct listener donations, alongside dynamic ad insertion.
👉There's More To Read: HERE
The podcast industry might be bigger than you think. New research from Hernan Lopez’s Owl & Co suggests that the global podcast economy is $7.3bn - and says that the US makes up two-thirds of that. The enlarged figure comes from including video and “consumer revenue” (like Patreon and others).
Exclusive: The London Standard newspaper has partnered with podcast producer Message Heard, to lead the development and production of The Standard’s award-winning audio output. It’s the first such partnership for a UK news brand.
What are “plays” on Spotify? Since the announcement yesterday that Spotify is adding a play count to its app, we’ve been trying to learn how a “play” is defined. However, Spotify don’t want to say; just that it’s intended to capture user intent, using a number of proprietary signals. As a by-product, “starts” will disappear from the creator dashboard. YouTube has also never published how it calculates “plays”; so, both companies are now using opaque, proprietary numbers as the primary consumption metric for creators.
Popular podcast Sips, Suds & Smokes has announced it’s to come off Spotify. “Spotify has made the decision to make non-IAB metrics publicly available. They have misrepresented data associated with this show on repeated occasions. This causes confusion with our advertisers that rely on IAB data. That confusion directly impacts our ad revenue.”
Why doesn’t Sir Michael Palin have a podcast? It’s not even an ex-podcast, it didn’t cease to be, it hasn’t shuffled off its mortal coil, not has it joined the choir invisible, because Michael Palin has never made one. The Crossed Wires podcast festival will seek to change that, in a live-on-stage podcast called Nobody Expects The Michael Palin Podcast. Presale tickets are available now for the event, hosted by Greg James, whose chief weapon is surprise. Surprise and fear. Fear, and surprise. His two weapons are fear. And surprise.
Thursday, May 8, 2025
The podcast industry might be bigger than you think. New research from Hernan Lopez’s Owl & Co suggests that the global podcast economy is $7.3bn - and says that the US makes up two-thirds of that. The enlarged figure comes from including video and “consumer revenue” (like Patreon and others).
Exclusive: The London Standard newspaper has partnered with podcast producer Message Heard, to lead the development and production of The Standard’s award-winning audio output. It’s the first such partnership for a UK news brand.
What are “plays” on Spotify? Since the announcement yesterday that Spotify is adding a play count to its app, we’ve been trying to learn how a “play” is defined. However, Spotify don’t want to say; just that it’s intended to capture user intent, using a number of proprietary signals. As a by-product, “starts” will disappear from the creator dashboard. YouTube has also never published how it calculates “plays”; so, both companies are now using opaque, proprietary numbers as the primary consumption metric for creators.
Popular podcast Sips, Suds & Smokes has announced it’s to come off Spotify. “Spotify has made the decision to make non-IAB metrics publicly available. They have misrepresented data associated with this show on repeated occasions. This causes confusion with our advertisers that rely on IAB data. That confusion directly impacts our ad revenue.”
Why doesn’t Sir Michael Palin have a podcast? It’s not even an ex-podcast, it didn’t cease to be, it hasn’t shuffled off its mortal coil, not has it joined the choir invisible, because Michael Palin has never made one. The Crossed Wires podcast festival will seek to change that, in a live-on-stage podcast called Nobody Expects The Michael Palin Podcast. Presale tickets are available now for the event, hosted by Greg James, whose chief weapon is surprise. Surprise and fear. Fear, and surprise. His two weapons are fear. And surprise.
👉There's More to Read: HERE
PodX Group is to acquire Lemonada Media. The Swedish company already owns a number of podcast production houses across the world; it’s their first acquisition in the US. No terms were given.
Spotify announced that it is to add a “play” count, visible within the app, for all podcasts. “Plays will capture engagement across audio and video content on Spotify”, the company says, also pointing to a blog post for creators.
The Canadian Podcast Listener, a survey of podcast consumption in Canada, will contain enhanced video podcast metrics when it is released later this year. The research will break out actual audio and video consumption among genres, top podcasts, and among all podcast consumers.
Spotify and IAS launched the platform’s first third-party brand safety and suitability tool. For podcast advertisers across the Spotify Audience Network, the joint solution provides classification at the podcast episode level for brand safety and suitability measurement.
German podcast platform Audiorella launched Audiorella Data, a tool that gathers playback data from Spotify, YouTube, and other key platforms into one dashboard. ZDF is their its customer.
Acast released its financial report for Q1/2025. The company saw sales growth of 30%, up to US$55mn for the quarter. North America grew by 65%. However, the company went back into loss, losing $3mn in the quarter; and total listens dropped by 1% year-on-year - though that is a creditable number, given Acast lost the BBC in November.
The South African government is planning to regulate podcasters. A government minister said that there was “an obligation to protect the rights of the people who use these podcast platforms, including equality, dignity, and privacy,” adding: “You can’t have a platform where anything goes and has no regulatory parity.”
Sports Social has launched five shows into the French podcast market, including one hosted by the French football legend Robert Pirès.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) released a proposal for five key principles for a code of practice for the use of AI by tech companies in news reporting.
Wednesday, May 7, 2025
PodX Group is to acquire Lemonada Media. The Swedish company already owns a number of podcast production houses across the world; it’s their first acquisition in the US. No terms were given.
- Last month, PodX merged its three UK companies.
Spotify announced that it is to add a “play” count, visible within the app, for all podcasts. “Plays will capture engagement across audio and video content on Spotify”, the company says, also pointing to a blog post for creators.
- But, what exactly are plays? “Plays are a new metric that reflects the number of times people have actively watched or listened to any episode in your catalog,” the Spotify for Creators page says - but gives no detail of how this is calculated. Podnews asked Spotify for the definition of a “play”: it’s a measure of “intentional engagement”, we were told, but were sent no further clarification on how it is calculated (even when we asked again). Consumption will now be confusingly displayed to creators in “streams”, “downloads” and “plays”, but without a definition of what a “play” is, it seems an opaque and self-serving number, and is disappointing.
- Consumption hours and consumption hours by user will also now be available.
The Canadian Podcast Listener, a survey of podcast consumption in Canada, will contain enhanced video podcast metrics when it is released later this year. The research will break out actual audio and video consumption among genres, top podcasts, and among all podcast consumers.
Spotify and IAS launched the platform’s first third-party brand safety and suitability tool. For podcast advertisers across the Spotify Audience Network, the joint solution provides classification at the podcast episode level for brand safety and suitability measurement.
There's More to Read: HERE
Tuesday, May 6, 2025
German podcast platform Audiorella launched Audiorella Data, a tool that gathers playback data from Spotify, YouTube, and other key platforms into one dashboard. ZDF is their its customer.
Acast released its financial report for Q1/2025. The company saw sales growth of 30%, up to US$55mn for the quarter. North America grew by 65%. However, the company went back into loss, losing $3mn in the quarter; and total listens dropped by 1% year-on-year - though that is a creditable number, given Acast lost the BBC in November.
The South African government is planning to regulate podcasters. A government minister said that there was “an obligation to protect the rights of the people who use these podcast platforms, including equality, dignity, and privacy,” adding: “You can’t have a platform where anything goes and has no regulatory parity.”
Sports Social has launched five shows into the French podcast market, including one hosted by the French football legend Robert Pirès.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) released a proposal for five key principles for a code of practice for the use of AI by tech companies in news reporting.
👉There's More To Read: HERE
Edison Research released the top 50 podcasts in the US for Q1 2025. Rotten Mango makes its debut in the top ten; The Mel Robbins Podcast makes the top 50 for the first time - at #15.Podnews’s list includes hosting companies; Megaphone host 22, Simplecast host 12.
Registrations are now open for the Women Who Podcast Awards. The awards are run by a magazine, Women Who Podcast, which is up to issue 17.
President Trump signed an executive order aiming to eliminate federal funding for NPR and PBS. Public funding for radio and TV costs the American taxpayer $1.60 a year, said New York Public Radio in a statement.
In the US, Apple lost a court case, and has allowed developers to link to external purchase mechanisms. Spotify was among one of the first to make a change to their app. The ruling may make it easier for podcast app developers to link to purchases without having to pay Apple’s 30% “app-tax”; Patreon has said it will also make changes to its app. It only applies to the US for now; though we can expect the EU to take a keen interest.
The second annual Sports Podcast Festival returns to Raleigh NC in mid August.
Monday, May 5, 2025
Edison Research released the top 50 podcasts in the US for Q1 2025. Rotten Mango makes its debut in the top ten; The Mel Robbins Podcast makes the top 50 for the first time - at #15.Podnews’s list includes hosting companies; Megaphone host 22, Simplecast host 12.
Registrations are now open for the Women Who Podcast Awards. The awards are run by a magazine, Women Who Podcast, which is up to issue 17.
President Trump signed an executive order aiming to eliminate federal funding for NPR and PBS. Public funding for radio and TV costs the American taxpayer $1.60 a year, said New York Public Radio in a statement.
In the US, Apple lost a court case, and has allowed developers to link to external purchase mechanisms. Spotify was among one of the first to make a change to their app. The ruling may make it easier for podcast app developers to link to purchases without having to pay Apple’s 30% “app-tax”; Patreon has said it will also make changes to its app. It only applies to the US for now; though we can expect the EU to take a keen interest.
The second annual Sports Podcast Festival returns to Raleigh NC in mid August.
👉There's More To Read: HERE
No comments:
Post a Comment