For the first time since changes to how podcasts are downloaded by iOS 17, publishers have a reason to believe there is light at the end of the tunnel. Not only does Podtrac report it saw downloads go up between December and January for the top 20 publishers, but 17 of the top 20 also had a bigger unique audience last month versus the prior month.
Podtrac says total the average unique monthly audience for the group was up 11% month-to-month. And while the year-to-year comparison shows the average audience since 10% lower than a year earlier, that is smaller than the 13% drop off it reported in December.
The Apple Podcast update released in the fall focused on how automatic downloads are dealt with. Prior to the release of the iOS 17 operating system, when a listener would un-pause automatic downloads, the system would automatically download all un-played episodes. But now with the release of the new OS, Apple Podcasts will resume automatically downloading only the new episodes. And the previous episodes will not be downloaded at all. Apple Podcasts also says that when a podcaster publishes an older episode to their show, they will no longer present themselves as new. The changes came at the request of several podcast companies, which have said the resulting data will be more accurate.
Podtrac has also been making some changes of its own with release of its first 2024 data. It has replaced the global downloads and streams data that had been featured in the monthly update with figures that only reflect U.S. listeners. It says that better aligns with the monthly audience numbers. The move will also mean Podtrac will begin releasing global rankings later this month.
In terms of downloads, the top 20 publishers got some good news there, too. Podtrac says they had an average six percent increase in U.S. downloads and streams. The company did not release a year-to-year comparison.
iHeart Stays On Top
Podtrac’s list of top publishers last month was again led by iHeartPodcasts. It had nearly 207 million downloads and a U.S. reach of more than 34 million listeners, the latter up 14% from December. The report also reveals that iHeart has quietly cut the size of its roster. While it is still massive at 850 active shows, that is 20 fewer than what was measured a month earlier.
Wondery and NPR again both have a claim on second place. Wondery’s unique U.S audience size rose 11% to 20.4 million with about 95 million U.S. downloads last month according to Podtrac data.
But NPR had more downloads than Wondery – 118 million U.S. downloads per Podtrac. It was however narrowly edged out by Wondery in terms of unique U.S. audience although NPR has claim to a larger increase – it’s reach rose 12% between December and January.
Among the publishers measured by Podtrac, its January ranking shows PodcastOne returned to the top ten. Its network of 181 shows had 19.2 million U.S. downloads last month, while its unique audience was 5.3 million – the latter figure growing 15% month-to-month. That pushed Paramount Audio out of the top ten, as its audience size dropped nine percent.
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