A nine percent increase in iHeartRadio’s unique U.S. monthly audience in June kept the company at the top of Podtrac’s monthly ranking of the top publishers it measures. iHeartRadio had a reach of 31.7 million last month with nearly 252 million downloads. As the number of active shows on iHeartRadio has grown – in June it had 567 – the gap between it and second place NPR has continued to widen. Last month NPR had a unique U.S. monthly audience of 20.2 million, a four percent drop month-to-month. NPR had 47 active shows which had a combined 151.3 million downloads.
Despite a five percent decrease in its monthly uniques, the New York Times remained in third place with a reach topping 10 million. It was followed by Wondery, which held steady with a unique U.S. audience of 8.7 million. NBC News saw its reach grow six percent to nearly 7.6 million in June.
The biggest mover in the top ten was Barstool Sports, which fell from No. 4 in May to No. 8 in June as its unique U.S. audience dropped 23% and its global downloads declined 26%. The declines are tied to a single show – Call Her Daddy, which defected to Spotify with an exclusive distribution deal that began June 1. Spotify is not measured by Podtrac.
Barstool founder Dave Portnoy said the loss of the show will hurt the company’s bottom line since it was by far the biggest podcast revenue generator for the company. Portnoy said they are even looking at trimming some expenses as a result of losing the series.
Even as some publishers moved up and down month-to-month, Podtrac reports among those it measures, those making its top 20 remained the same in June.
Eleven of the top 20 podcast publishers measured by Podtrac had month-to-month increases in their U.S. monthly audience during June. Podtrac also reports that among the top 20 publishers, their U.S. monthly audience during June was up an average of one percent compared to the prior month. And it was flat versus June 2020.
Podtrac did not release a monthly download analysis for the top 20 however, something it has typically done in the past.
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