Triton Digital Launches Inclusive U.S. Podcast Rankings To Include All Publishers.

Triton Digital is expanding its measurement of the podcast industry with new quarterly updates that rank the biggest shows and publishers regardless of whether they are a subscriber to its services. Triton will add quarterly survey-based listener rankings to the existing U.S. Podcast Ranker that is issued each month based on downloads. Triton says the quarterly ranking of the podcasts with the most listeners, based on a nationally representative survey that includes all publishers and podcast, will offer a more holistic view of podcast consumption.

The current U.S. Podcast Ranker based on downloads will continue to be issued monthly, for publishers using Triton Digital’s measurement services. Every quarter, in addition to downloads, the U.S. Podcast Ranker will feature survey-based listener rankings, where all publishers and podcasts will be incorporated, not just those that participate in Triton Digital’s download measurement. It will expand to include the top 200 podcasts. The survey asks participants what podcasts they listened to or watched, which will include video podcasts consumed via platforms including YouTube. This will supplement the data that is already provided to publishers via Triton Digital’s YouTube integration, which offers insights into how their content is consumed on YouTube in conjunction with their overall podcast downloads. 

The ranker will also leverage Demos+ measurement, which utilizes Triton’s proprietary modeling approach, combining listener surveys with download measurement, to list which podcasts most efficiently reach different audiences. The ranker will list the podcasts whose audience has the highest percentage of various age and gender, socio-economic, lifestyle and purchase intents segments. It sees the feature as an important resource for advertisers and media buyers looking to identify the podcasts that reach their desired audiences at scale. But unlike show popularity, this portion of the ranker requires publisher participation in Triton measurement. 

“The combination of census-level download measurement blended with survey measurement provides the most comprehensive understanding of podcast audiences and their consumption habits,” Triton Senior VP Daryl Battaglia says in the announcement. “By adopting new methods to measure audiences and augmenting our current tools, we are enriching the podcast information available to advertisers so they can feel confident in reaching their target audiences.” 

The survey and Demos+ data will continue to be conducted in collaboration with Signal Hill Insights, which has partnered with Triton since 2021. 

“We at Signal Hill are always focused on moving the podcast industry forward, and we’re excited to take this next step with Triton Digital,” says Paul Riismandel, President of Signal Hill Insights. “The addition of holistic industry-wide, survey-based rankings to the U.S. Podcast Ranker is another significant step, enhancing the depth and value of the insights we provide to the industry.”

The use of survey-based listening data isn’t new to podcasting. While Triton Digital and Podtrac have released rankings based strictly on download data in the past, Edison Research has used consumer recall surveys since 2020 to build its quarterly rankings of Podcast Metrics Top 50 Podcasts using a large sample size. It has also allowed Edison to collect a variety of demographic, psychographic, and purchase-behavior information.