Podtrac Says iHeart Was Top Publisher In November.

Podcast listening softened slightly in November, as the impact of the Thanksgiving holiday likely resulted in lower download numbers for several publishers. Even so, Podtrac says among those it measures, six of the top 20 in the U.S. ranker posted month-to-month growth in their audience reach, and four saw downloads rise.

Podtrac says iHeartMedia remained at the head of its rankings for both individual publishers and for sales networks in the U.S. and worldwide among the publishers it measures. Among publishers, iHeartPodcasts had the biggest reach with a unique reach in the U.S. with 33.1 million listeners, and downloads of 168.7 million. The Walt Disney Company — whose shows include those produced by ABC News and ESPN — remained the second biggest individual publisher last month. Disney had 8.2 million unique listeners and 26.4 million downloads. Vox Media ranked third, with 6.3 million listeners and 39.4 million downloads.

Among the sales networks measured by Podtrac, the iHeart Audience Network led in the U.S. with 355.3 million downloads to the more than 22,000 shows that its reps to advertisers around the globe, and 70.9 million unique listeners. Libsyn ranked second with 22 million unique listeners. It was followed by Wondery with 21.2 million, and NPR with 20.4 million.

The numbers were softer on a global basis, as Podtrac says all the global publishers and ad networks it measured showed month-to-month audience declines in November vs. October, when each had growth.

The iHeart Audience Network, which had nearly 714.9 million global streams, downloads and video views around the world in November, again led the ranking by a wide margin with month-to-month audience gains. That included about 129 million YouTube views for the 65 podcasts in the iHeart network that also make their shows available on the streaming video service.

Acast held second place with 406.3 million global streams and downloads in November. 

Third-place Libsyn slid to 184.6 million global downloads, streams and views. Sonora Global Media was fourth with 97.9 million, and Paramount was the fifth-biggest global podcast network overall during November with 63.3 million.

Podtrac says the top five shows among the publishers it measures remained the same in November. The New York Times’ morning news series The Daily was once again the most listened-to podcast in October among the publishers it measures. It was followed by NPR’s on-demand hourly newscast, and NPR’s morning news series Up First, with Dateline NBC and The Dan Bongino Show rounding out the top five, which has remained unchanged since September.