Podcasting growth could have peaked as large tech is sound for the kilos

Few industries have loved as a lot of a growth throughout current years as podcasting.

Improvements within the ease of manufacturing and distribution, with extra inexpensive and environment friendly recording tools and an explosion within the availability of smartphones and listening units, have helped make podcasts simply accessible to huge audiences.

Media corporations have been fast to determine the expansion potential and have invested closely in podcasting, not solely the standard of manufacturing but in addition in expertise, with numerous large names being lured away from established broadcasters just like the BBC.

It has created a number of specialist podcasting publishers, resembling London-listed Audioboom and Nasdaq-listed iHeartMedia, though in some nations the market has shortly develop into dominated by established media names who’ve swooped to accumulate rivals.

In the United States, for instance, though the specialist podcasting publishers like iHeart benefit from the greatest audiences, respiration down their neck are the likes of the New York Times, NBC (which shares frequent possession with Sky News), Fox, Disney, Paramount and CNN.

In the UK, once more, established names have an enormous presence. They are led by Global, the UK’s greatest business radio operator, which owns stations resembling Heart, Capital, Classic FM and LBC.

It produces and distributes podcasts, a lot of which construct on its radio programming, by means of its Global Player platform.

The BBC can also be a significant drive in UK podcasting, not solely by publishing its personal podcasts, but in addition by distributing them through its BBC Sounds app. The BBC additionally exerts affect over the sector by commissioning productions from impartial corporations.

But the UK additionally boasts numerous impartial podcasters, most notably Goalhanger Podcasts, whose greatest single shareholder is the Match of the Day presenter and former England soccer captain Gary Lineker.

Goalhanger’s productions embody The Rest Is Politics and The Rest Is History, respectively presently No 1 and No 6 within the variety of downloads through Apple podcasts.

Advertisers have been fast to get on board, not least as a result of two-fifths of podcasts – within the UK at the very least – are consumed by individuals between the ages of 26 and 35, a pretty demographic that may be tough to achieve.

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Research suggests almost half of those persons are tuning in to study one thing new, once more a demographic advertisers are eager to achieve, whereas these commuting to and from London additionally type a disproportionately giant a part of the viewers.

The common advert spend per podcast listener within the UK, which stood at £2.31 in 2020, is forecast to have grown by 79% by the top of subsequent yr. Despite the fast progress, although, the promoting revenues garnered by the podcasting trade stay comparatively small.

The UK podcasting trade’s advert revenues, even after a number of years of progress, are anticipated solely to be round £64m by 2025. By distinction, UK nationwide newspaper, regional newspaper and journal promoting revenues final yr – regardless of years of decline – nonetheless got here in at almost £2bn.

The large query is who’s making probably the most cash from all this exercise.

The reply is, unsurprisingly, the massive tech giants – Apple, Spotify, Google and Amazon – all of whom have performed an enormous position in accelerating the expansion of podcasting. Apple will be credited with kickstarting the growth when, as way back as 2005, it added podcast help to its iTunes music platform – making it simpler to for a mass market to take heed to podcasts.

Apple stays one of many greatest and most essential podcasting platforms, not least by having put in its podcast app on iPhones.

Spotify, in the meantime, has develop into a number one podcasting platform and has invested closely to develop into a podcast producer in its personal proper, not solely shopping for podcasting corporations resembling Anchor, Parcast, The Ringer and Gimlet Media, but in addition signing up particular person personalities, such because the American controversialist Joe Rogan, on unique offers.

Another of those agreements noticed it signal an unique take care of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – whose precise podcasts turned out to be significantly much less fascinating than the information of their signing with Spotify within the first place.

Google, in the meantime, has additionally been making inroads into the sector because the launch of its devoted podcast app.

So, too, has Amazon. It already had a powerful presence out there by means of its possession of Audible, which hosts audiobooks and podcasts, however has constructed on this. It started to make podcasts out there on Amazon Music, its music streaming platform, as way back as September 2020 and has since branched out into proudly owning a podcast publishing enterprise of its personal through acquisitions, most notably the podcasting writer Wondery, which it snapped up in December 2020.

It has since sought to draw extra podcast listeners by making podcasts out there on an ad-free foundation to members of its Prime subscription service. These embody not solely podcasts produced by Wondery itself but in addition exhibits from the likes of CNN and the New York Times.

The methods fluctuate subtly: whereas Apple and Google are each blissful to host podcasts however not publish podcasts below their very own steam, Spotify and Amazon are going for a extra vertically built-in mannequin by not solely internet hosting and distributing podcasts but in addition producing them.

The exercise of those 4 ought to inform you although that, whereas there may be room out there for specialist publishers like Goalhanger or Global, many of the cash constructed from podcasting will likely be collected by the tech giants.

It definitely will not be made by most podcast publishers. It is estimated that the highest 1% of podcasts already account for round 99% of podcast downloads. That does not go away a lot for anybody else. It helps explains why, together with the abundance of alternative, solely a minority of podcasts make it previous a dozen episodes or so.

The excessive casualty charge amongst podcasts additionally explains why there may be already speak in some quarters of the podcasting growth having peaked.

The variety of new podcasts launched in 2022 was down by 80% on 2021, in accordance with some estimates, whereas the proportion of the inhabitants – within the US at the very least – that usually listens to a podcast has additionally fallen over the past yr.

The large podcasting publishers are being extra discriminating. One of the primary UK gamers is reputed to have determined towards launching any new podcasts except they’ll assure an viewers of at the very least 100,000 downloads per version.

All of which means, whereas the enterprise of podcasting has loved meteoric progress lately, the long run for the sector is relatively much less clear.

Ian King Live will likely be broadcast dwell from The Podcast Show 2023 on Wednesday 23 May and can see Ian joined by main figures within the podcast trade