ARN’s iHeartPodcast Network Australia has announced two new commercial partnerships with podcast creators Audioboom and Kast Media to expand its podcast offering.
As part of its growth strategy, the iHeartPodcast Network has added new titles from Kast Media including: On Purpose with Jay Shetty, The Fighter & The Kid, and Impaulsive with Logan Paul. New titles from Audioboom include: Casefile, No Such Thing As A Fish, The Totally Football Show, and F1: Beyond The Grid.
On joining ARN’s iHeartPodcast Network Australia, Colin Thomson, founder & CEO from Kast Media said, “We are excited to join ARN’s iHeartPodcast Network, adding our thought-provoking and entertaining shows to Australia’s largest podcast network. The partnership aligns with our mission to create content that brands can integrate and be a part of.”
Stuart Last, CEO of Audioboom said, “Our podcasts feature well-known personalities and top talent from across the world, attracting global audiences, including significant numbers in Australia. The experience of ARN’s iHeartPodcast Network in monetising audiences makes them the perfect fit to further expand our advertising potential across the Audioboom roster. From the entertaining No Such Thing As A Fish to the true crime grit of the Australian-made Casefile, we know clients across Australia are going to love speaking to these new listeners.”
On the two new partnerships, ARN’s head of commercial audio & podcasts Corey Layton said, “ARN continues to dominate the podcast space, and these new partnerships with Audioboom and Kast Media will further extend and diversify our offering, giving brands access to some of the world’s most compelling and popular content.”
The announcement comes as ARN releases new podcast listener data for May with leading podcast technology provider Megaphone. Again showing growth month on month, the data captured for May shows strong audience growth with an increase of 6% compared to April. Overall, listening on the iHeartPodcast Network from when the pandemic was declared (mid-March to May) is up 22% compared to listening pre-pandemic (January to mid-March 2020).
Growth in genre listening also shows an increase in listening across May. Comedy and Catch-up Radio had the biggest increase in listeners with each category up by 33%, listeners for the Business and Finance categories were up 17%, while Entertainment and Lifestyle continued as the most popular podcast category overall.
Layton continued, “May was ARN’s strongest month for audience growth this year, as we continue to see more and more people turning to podcasts for entertainment, education and escapism.”
Of the increase in audiences and new partnerships, ARN’s chief commercial officer Pete Whitehead added, “ARN continues to expand its client integration offering with the most diverse range of content partnerships, across platforms that continue to grow in listenership. Podcasts continue to lead as a format for content generation and ARN has the very best range of integrated commercial partnership opportunities available for clients.”