Podcasting continued to show it is more immune from the summertime drop-off rates that some other forms of media have experienced. Podtrac says among the publishers it measures, 11 of the top 21 had increases in unique monthly audience between July and August, and 11 had more downloads in the U.S. on a month-to-month basis.
Podtrac says iHeartMedia remained at the head of its rankings for both for individual publishers and sales networks in the U.S. and worldwide in August among the publishers it measures. Among publishers, iHeartPodcasts had the biggest reach, with a unique reach in the U.S. during August with 31.2 million listeners, a 5% increase from July, and downloads of 171 million, a 2% increase from the prior month.
NPR, which had been measured as a publisher, has now shifted to Podtrac’s network list. It means the Walt Disney Company — whose shows include those produced by ABC News and ESPN — becomes the second-biggest publisher. Disney had 8.1 million unique listeners last month and 26.9 million downloads.
Among sales networks, the iHeart Audience Network led in the U.S. with more than 380 million downloads to the 30,357 shows that it reps to advertisers around the globe and 70 million unique listeners. Libsyn ranked second, with 21.9 million unique listeners, followed by NPR with 21.2 million, Wondery with 19.4 million, and Acast with 18.4 million.
Podtrac’s ranking of global publishers and ad networks shows seven of the eight global networks it measures had month-to-month audience growth and more downloads in August vs. July. That included the iHeart Audience Network, which had nearly 774 million global streams, downloads and video views around the world in August, up 11% from July. That included more than 142 million YouTube views for the 57 podcasts in the iHeart network that also make their shows available on the streaming viewing service.
Acast held second place despite being the only global publisher showing a dip in downloads last month. Podtrac says it had 344 million global streams and downloads in August, down from 356 million a month earlier. Libsyn followed with 229 million, including 125 million coming from YouTube shows. That was up 21% from a month earlier.
Paramount was the sixth-biggest global podcast network overall during August, but it ranked third in terms of YouTube views. Podtrac says Paramount’s 31 podcasts available on the video site had a combined 36.1 million views last month.
Podtrac says the New York Times’ morning news series The Daily was the most listened-to podcast in July among the publishers it measures. It was followed by NPR’s on-demand hourly newscast, and NPR’s morning news series Up First, with The Dan Bongino Show and with Dateline NBC rounding out the top five.
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