Rachel Corbett joins Nova Entertainment as Head of Podcasts and Digital Content

Sydney NSW, Australia—NOVA Entertainment today announced the appointment of Rachel Corbett as Head of Podcasts and Digital Content, a key role in NOVA’s strategic investment in digital audio.

Corbett will be responsible for leading NOVA’s digital content strategy, development, production and talent management. Leading a team of digital content creators, she will innovate new digital content formats, working closely with NOVA’s commercial team and programming to grow its digital audiences and commercial offerings.

Rachel Corbett said, “As someone who’s almost obsessively passionate about creating high-quality audio, the opportunity to lead NOVA’s digital team and build out their suite of original shows was a no-brainer. Podcast listeners are looking for engaging and entertaining content and working with a producing team to create that is my happy place, so I’m excited to get started."

Corbett has extensive experience in the podcast and radio mediums. As Mamamia’s Head of Podcasts from 2017 to early this year, Corbett oversaw the growth of the podcast network to over 35 shows, quadrupling downloads to over 90 million and growing the unique audience to over one million per month.

Fayad Tohme, NOVA Entertainment’s Chief Digital Officer said: “Rachel’s track record of success in developing exceptional content that connects audiences and brands made her the perfect choice to develop NOVA’s podcast production capabilities, provide scale to our podcast catalogue and identify opportunities to invest in original and appealing content. She has the right skills and talents to lead our team of content producers and further establish our audio proposition.”

NOVA Entertainment is continuing to achieve month-on-month growth for its original and show podcasts, with an all-time high for Kate, Tim & Marty of over one million downloads in a month while the Nova Network’s original podcast The Babble has also had its strongest month to date, increasing by 170% from July to August¹.

NOVA Entertainment also represents a compelling podcast offering that includes a strategic podcast partnership with News Corp Australia, home to ‘The Night Driver’ now the number one podcast in the country, Sky News and a suite of international publishers.

Rachel Corbett’s appointment follows the engagement of Tim Armstrong as Head of Digital Audience & Monetisation in June 2020. Armstrong’s focus will be to accelerate NOVA Entertainment’s digital audio platform strategy, enhancing monetisation and streamline operations, as well growing the company’s digital audience.

Fayad Tohme said: “Tim’s appointment allows us to build a centralised, multi-functional digital platform to manage, distribute and monetise our content. His background in digital technology and operations is essential for us to be able to deliver innovative and effective digital propositions for our audience and clients.”

Rachel Corbett will commence as Head of Podcasts and Digital Content on 5 October.

About Rachel Corbett

Rachel Corbett is a versatile media personality with extensive experience in the podcast and radio mediums. Having spent the first 12 years of her career as a radio producer and host, in 2016 she started up her own online podcasting course, PodSchool and took over as Head of Podcasts at Mamamia in 2017. She’s also hosted over 10 podcasts and has worked as a podcast consultant for brands including Google.

About Tim Armstrong

With over 14 years of digital operations and product experience, Tim Armstrong has carved out an impressive career including various product, operations and leadership roles across digital publishers, advertising networks and technology businesses. Most recently Armstrong was General Manager of AdTech for Switch Media, a video technology company, working with global broadcasters and OTT streaming services on executing strategies to help drive their advertising funded business models. In June 2019 he also started his own business Armstrong Consulting developing sustainable and smart solutions to address growing business challenges and complexities.

1: Source: Triton Digital Podcast Metrics, July vs. August 2020