Acast makes profit

• Acast is in “profit” for the first time, according to its Q4/23 financial results; the company made “positive adjusted EBITDA” of US $1.5mn in the quarter; though it posted an operational loss of $7.3mn. Sales grew by 18% last year.

  • Total listens went down by 12% after Apple Podcasts changes in iOS 17. Those changes cost Acast US $7.2mn in a one-off contract revaluation.
  • The company earns $0.04 from every podcast listen.

• Google is telling subscribers to its Google One service that there has been a data breach at Apple Podcasts, which has shared email addresses. That’s not true; part of a large combination of files, and nothing more than someone who’s gone through open podcast RSS feeds, scraping for email addresses: it’s not from Apple servers. (In any case, Apple don’t need, nor use, email addresses in your RSS feed).

• Rephonic has added a new feature - matching podcasts with YouTube channels in its directory, and a look at each country’s YouTube Podcast Charts.

• Half of weekly podcast consumers follow a podcast host on social media, according to a new report from Signal Hill Insights and Cumulus Media.

• Podpage is now supporting the Podcasting 2.0 chapters feature. Chapters published in this way are independently editable, and can be displayed by a wider set of tools.

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• CrimeCon’s CLUE Awards are now open for entry.

• SiriusXM has laid-off 160 further employees - the same company that paid $100mn to buy SmartLess last month. It’s not that clear which departments will be affected.

• Semafor claims that Spotify is renegotiating its deal with Trevor Noah. Spotify deny the story.

• Castopod explains some of the technical aspects of podcast measurement, and highlights OP3 as a potential solution.

• Happy World Radio Day.

Tips and tricks - with Podpage

• If you’re working in branded podcasts, it’s important to balance creativity and brand success, says Roger Nairn from JAR Audio.

• How do I get more listeners for my podcast? We’ve lots to read on that.

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Podcast News

There’s excitement in the gaming community, as The Official Xbox Podcast has announced a “special edition” will be available Feb 15. Slated to appear are Microsoft Games CEO Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond, President of Xbox, and Matt Booty, the Head of Xbox Game Studios. “We look forward to sharing more details with you about our vision for the future of Xbox.”

Launched in 2016 as a daily news podcast, CyberWire Daily has published its 2,000th episode. Host Dave Bittner has now also conducted over 5,000 interviews for the network of shows, with the majority of those airing in the CyberWire Daily. “We’ve never missed a planned episode,” we’re told.

Footy Prime The Podcast has scored a deal to join the team at the Acast Creator Network. The Canadian football show is top of the league for soccer shows in the country, and was a transfer from Buzzsprout. Beautiful game, back of the net, etc.

News Club is new from Australia’s The Squiz today, setting itself up to be the place to go for conversations about the news. The audience will have the opportunity across all platforms to engage, drive the conversation and ask specific questions. The first episode is all about Joe Biden.

The latest episode of The Daily Show: Ears Edition was joined by old/new host Jon Stewart, who returns to the show this year. It’s not just the election, he’s quoted as saying.

Danish podcast company Podster is to adapt the NRC podcast Wilde Eeuwen into new languages. The European history show is regularly a chart-topper in the Netherlands.

There might not be a climate change category to put it in yet, but Shift Key with Robinson Meyer and Jesse Jenkins has been launched by Heatmap News, featuring two of the “most influential voices in clean energy and climate news and policy”. It launched last week.

Podme, a premium Nordic podcast company, has launched Sweet Bobby in Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish. The original show was made by Tortoise Media, and adapted by Banda.