Amount of ads in podcasts grows by 20%

• Podcast ad spend increased by 22% year-on-year, but the amount of ads in podcasts has increased by 20%, according to Magellan AI, which has published its Podcast Advertising Benchmarks Report for Q2 2024. The average ad load was 7.19% in Q2/24, up from 5.97% in Q2/23; which suggests that for a typical hour-long show, 4.3 minutes are advertising.

  • That’s still rather less than radio. Fox and Andy in the morning on Audacy’s WCBS-FM New York yesterday morning was 24.1% ads (29 minutes between 7am-9am). Even NPR’s Morning Edition, as aired on WBEZ Chicago, is 7.3% advertising/underwriting. And, in Sydney Australia, 2GB’s breakfast show is 27.1% advertising.

• Google is helping users who haven’t yet migrated their podcast subscriptions out of Google Podcasts by giving them an extra month to do so.

• Are you a UK podcast company? AudioUK is working on lobbying the new government for tax relief for the podcast and audiobook sector. They need your data, and are running an anonymous survey to collect it.

• The B2B Pod Con 2024 has been announced, in Nashville, Tennessee, this November. It’s focusing on B2B podcasting; tickets go on sale tomorrow.

• Flightpath is to unveil predictive analytics for YouTube at Podcast Movement 2024. It means that the tool now gives real-time visibility into future availability across YouTube as well as podcasting platforms.

• Blubrry is giving customers a free month of the company’s Thrive Bundle in August.

• The Australian Podcast Awards has confirmed the date and venue for this year’s awards - it’ll be in Sydney’s Darling Harbour on Nov 21. You’ve until Thursday to enter.

Moves and hires

• Sarah St John has been announced as the new Podcast Growth Coordinator for podcast hosting and production company Podetize. Also the host of Frugalpreneur, she moves from Podpage.

Tips and tricks - with Memberful

• “Freemium” works - 47.4% more people signed up for a basic plan when it was free, vs just $1, says research from the University of Passau and Arizona State University, highlighted in a posting by Ariyh.

• Why Your Podcast Needs an Organic and Paid Marketing Strategy, says Podcast Discovery. The company is, of course, a paid podcast marketing company; but the advice isn’t (just!) selling their wares.

Podcast News

The New Media Show this week has Dan Franks from Podcast Movement as a guest, discussing the upcoming event in Washington DC.

Supercool is a new climate podcast which focuses on solutions that cut carbon while improving people’s lives and strengthening communities. It’s hosted by author and environmental entrepreneur Josh Dorfman; the first guest is Alan Eber, who led the first 100% local and renewable energy-powered healthcare system (saving $5mn on energy costs).

Why Wars Happened is new - focusing on the intricate political backgrounds behind history’s most significant wars. It’s researched, written, recorded, edited and produced by Emily Ross; on YouTube as well as podcast apps.