Luminary to expand service to South Africa, Ireland and New Zealand

New York NY, USA—Luminary Media, a premium content podcast subscription service, announced today that it is expanding service to three new countries, bringing its original content to South Africa, Ireland, and New Zealand listeners. This move will double the number of international locations where Luminary is offered (currently CA, UK, AU) and will expand its reach to Africa for the first time.

“We are proud to offer original content from our talented creators to South Africa, Ireland, and New Zealand, where podcast listenership continues to rapidly grow. With Trevor Noah, Celeste Barber, and Russell Brand, the Luminary network is offering quality content that we know listeners in these countries will want to hear,” said Luminary CEO Simon Sutton.

“We are particularly proud to bring Trevor Noah’s show to his home in South Africa, where there has been high demand for access to his important and insightful conversations” said Matt Sacks, Luminary Founder and Executive Chairman.

Each of the three countries is seeing strong growth in podcast listenership, with more than 4 million monthly podcast listeners across the countries based on estimates from Reuters. Luminary offers all listeners a seven-day free trial of Luminary Premium. After the free trial, the subscription price will be: Ireland (Monthly: €4.99/mo, Annual: €34.99), South Africa (Monthly: R34.99/mo, Annual:R249.99), and New Zealand (Monthly: NZ$7.99/mo, Annual: NZ$58.99). Luminary will begin to go live in these countries the week of February 17th.

Since launching ten months ago, Luminary’s podcast content has had a strong positive reaction from critics and listeners, as Luminary creators were recently honored with 2019 Podcast of the Year Awards from AdWeek and named in 2019 “best podcasts” and “best podcast episodes” lists by The Atlantic, Time, The New Yorker, The Guardian, Marie Claire, IndieWire, O The Oprah Magazine, Esquire, Vulture, The AV Club and Good Housekeeping.

This global expansion comes on the heels of Simon Sutton, the former President and Chief Revenue Officer of HBO, joining Luminary as CEO, and Richard Plepler, the former CEO & Chairman of HBO, joining Luminary’s Board of Directors. Sutton and Plepler are bringing their deep expertise of quality content -- from both HBO and Plepler’s Eden Productions and its exclusive partnership with Apple TV+ – and proven track record of success.

These moves are part of Luminary’s continued growth and evolution in this dynamic market, where in the United States, 90 million Americans have listened to a podcast in the last 30 days according to Edison Research and Triton Digital.

About Luminary

Luminary is a premium podcast subscription service. Luminary offers a premium subscription network of top quality podcasts available only on Luminary. Luminary Premium podcasts feature some of the most recognizable voices in podcasting, leading entertainers, and diverse and emerging voices. Luminary also offers a free podcast app with simple user interface and smart content discovery. Luminary was founded by Matt Sacks in 2018 with backing from NEA, a global venture capital fund with $20 billion in assets under management. Driven by the singular mission to improve the podcasting experience for both listeners and creators, Luminary is making it easier for podcast listeners to find great content and for podcast creators to do their best work. The free Luminary app is available on iOS, Android, and web.

Luminary offers all listeners a seven-day free trial of Luminary Premium. After the free trial, the monthly subscription price is $4.99 for U.S. subscribers, and the annual price is $34.99, or about $2.99 per month. Luminary Premium is also available for international listeners with a seven-day free trial, including in Canada (Monthly: CA$4.99/mo, Annual: CA$34.99), U.K (Monthly: £3.99/mo, Annual: £28.99), and Australia (Monthly: AU$5.99/mo, Annual: AU$34.99).