Audio Alliance: Seven Million Podcast Downloads In January
The German Audio Alliance set a new usage record in January. The podcasts produced for the Bertelsmann Content Alliance companies achieved a total of seven million downloads. Podcasts in the categories “Comedy”, “Family” and “Home Improvement” were especially in demand. The Audio Now platform achieved a usage increase of 40 percent compared with the preceding month.
The current lockdown in Germany drove the usage of the German Audio Alliance’s podcast portfolio to a new record in the beginning of the year: the Bertelsmann subsidiary achieved seven million downloads across all platforms in January. At the same time, the Audio Now platform achieved a usage increase of 40 percent compared with the preceding month. Podcasts in the categories “Comedy”, “Family” and “Home Improvement” were especially in demand.
“The high podcast usage in the current lockdown shows that people are looking for some lightness and entertainment in their everyday lives as well as ideas for purposefully shaping them,” said Mirijam Trunk, Managing Director of the Audio Alliance. “Our broad portfolio is perfectly suitable for both purposes: our strong comedy podcasts, which usually hold top positions on the charts, again saw clear gains. At the same time, we are ing an increased interest in productions about ‘Family’ and ‘Home Improvement’, with a strong focus on sustainable life.” The fact that the Audio Alliance had already decided last year to change over to the “IAB V2” standard for usage measuring has paid off. “In Particular, advertising clients appreciate that the reach we measure is actually correct. Tough standards are indispensable in a young market,” added Mirijam Trunk. The “IAB V2” standard measures listeners only after a listening time of at least 60 seconds and within 24 hours as unique listeners. Listeners who listen to podcasts in stages are therefore counted only once.
The podcasts with an especially strong usage in January included the comedy podcasts “Die Pochers hier!” and “08/17 mit Chris Tall und Özcan Cosar”, the family podcasts “Elterngespräch”, “Jenny & Marco – Zwischen Windeln und Social Media” and “Papalapapp”, as well as two home improvement podcasts: “Ideen für eine bessere Welt – der Hygge Podcast” and “Brigitte Be Green – Nachhaltigkeit ohne Blatt vorm Mund”. Since May 2019, the Audio Alliance has been developing and producing new podcasts and audio-on-demand offers of the six partners of the Bertelsmann Content Alliance: Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland, RTL Radio Deutschland, UFA, Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe, Gruner + Jahr and BMG. The podcasts are provided on the joint Audio Now platform for streaming and download.
