Cineverse launched the Cineverse Podcast Network nearly a year ago, followed by the ad platform Cineverse 360, to allow marketers to buy across its podcasts, website, connected TV and in-person events. The investments in audio are showing promising results. “We continue to see exponential listener growth,” Erick Opeka, Cineverse’s President and Chief Strategy Officer told investors this week. He said their podcast revenue has jumped 49% during the last 60 days.
A video streaming company best known for its Bloody Disgusting horror brand, Cineverse now has 44 podcasts. It reports the podcast business had $600,000 in revenue during the fiscal quarter that ended June 30. That was a 143% increase from a year earlier. Cineverse says the gains were driven by the growing popularity of the Bloody Disgusting podcast content.
“We're extremely focused on monetizing our podcast inventory, which we believe is currently being monetized at just a fraction of its full commercial value,” Opeka said. “Our current sales team has ramped up their direct efforts, and we're engaging with numerous third parties to help us rapidly fill the inventory over the next several quarters. We're also expanding our efforts to bring in additional top tier shows that further enhance our podcast offerings.”
Cineverse’s podcast revenue remains relatively small, but the company says the Cineverse Podcast Network now gets 12 million monthly downloads based on Megaphone and internal data. And it averages about 10 million unique monthly listeners. Management has set a goal of reaching 20 million downloads by the end of the fiscal year next March. And Opeka has said he believes they can become a top five podcast network by unique audience within the next 18 to 24 months.
Horror and True Crime genres are its most successful, with top series like The Dead, Murder in America, Creepy, and Dead Space, a podcast released in partnership with Electronic Arts' Motive Studio that leverage Cineverse brands like Bloody Disgusting and Screambox.
Opeka said on a conference call with analysts that the effort to better monetize those listeners includes moving beyond programmatic ad sales, which until now has represented all of their podcast advertising revenue.
“We’ve just started to get your first campaigns online with direct-to-consumer brands and some movie studios, so that business is just starting to lift off,” he said. “If I had to be conservative, I'd say, we're probably monetizing one directly less than 10% of that total inventory today. So there's a tremendous amount of upside growth out of that.” Opeka said Cineverse is also in the process of changing its programmatic partners, saying the company has “outgrown” its current partnerships. “I think you'll see a lot of growth there as well,” he told investors.
Beyond just its podcast business, Cineverse reported revenue in the fiscal quarter that ended June 30 declined 30% from a year ago to $9.1 million. It said podcasting’s growth helped offset declines in is video streaming and digital businesses. Losses totaled $3.2 million for the quarter. Cineverse told investors that it expects improved sales performance in the coming months, in part from the creation of a new advertising team focused on direct sales.
“We expect to see significant traction from these initiatives beginning in the current quarter,” Opeka said. “We've added six fully operational sales heads and are already seeing considerable results from their efforts.”
Cineverse will also benefit from the release of the next installment in its horror film franchise, “Terrifier 3” in October.
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