Despite trimming its roster of active shows, iHeartRadio saw its global streams and downloads tick up during November as it continued to lead Podtrac’s monthly ranking of top publishers. Podtrac says iHeartRadio had nearly 337 million downloads and streams last month, a five percent increase compared to a month earlier. And iHeart’s U.S. monthly unique audience totaled 32.6 million – an increase of about 1.5 million – despite having 13 fewer active series in November than in October.
It was the second consecutive month that iHeart had more than 300 million global streams and downloads as it continued to put more distance between itself and second place NPR. Podtrac says NPR’s total streams and downloads declined five percent during November compared to a month earlier to 157 million. NPR’s unique audience held steady, however.
Third place Wondery had a one percent uptick in its streams and downloads during November versus October as its roster of shows increased by four month-to-month. Fourth place finisher New York Times had an eight percent decline in its streams and downloads, with its top-ranked daily news podcast The Daily feeling the impact of a holiday week that disrupted regular listening patterns.
The top five publishers were the same in November as in October. The Walt Disney Co. again rounded out the top five. The parent of both ABC and ESPN saw its downloads decline four percent, although its unique U.S. reach remained at 8.4 million.
Podtrac says NBC News and PRX swapped spots in November despite NBC posting a month-to-month drop in its download total. The Daily Wire also moved ahead of the Cumulus Podcast Network – even though Cumulus had a three percent increase in downloads last month compared to a month earlier.
November also brought a major new publisher to Podtrac’s monthly ranker. PodcastOne debuted at No. 12 with more than 31 million streams and downloads last month to its 296 active shows. It also had a unique U.S. reach of more than 4.4 million.
PodcastOne’s addition meant that TED fell out of the top 20 during November while This American Life continues to hold on as the only free-standing show to make the monthly ranker. Podtrac says the show had 11.3 million downloads during November and a unique U.S. reach of roughly 3.3 million.
Overall, Podtrac says global downloads for the top 20 were flat during November compared to a month earlier. And it was on par with download numbers of a year ago.
Podtrac also reports seven of the top 20 publishers posted an increase in their unique monthly U.S. audience in November compared to October – the rest were either down or flat. It reports the average publisher had a one percent month-over-month increase in their U.S. unique monthly audience last month despite the impact of the Thanksgiving holiday. They were flat versus a year earlier.