Podcast distribution platform Audioboom has achieved record revenues of $74.9 million and profits of around $3.6 million, with a growth of 24% since 2021, despite weakening in the advertising market due to macro-economic conditions last year.
The company recently released its audited annual financial results for 2022, which showed continued growth for the platform as it cemented its place as a competitor in the podcast industry with over 110 million monthly downloads on average last year. This placed Audioboom as the sixth top sales network in Triton Digital’s 2022 end of year report with an average of 17.3 million weekly downloads, just behind Cumulus Podcast Network (20.3 M), while Stitcher Media ranked as the highest with 56.8 million weekly downloads.
In November 2021, Audioboom announced the launch of its global advertising marketplace, Showcase, which connects brands and publishers to over 8,000 podcast channels and uses both host-read and dynamic insertion technology. By the end of 2022, Showcase proved to be a key point of revenue growth for Audioboom in 2022, contributing more than 15% to the group’s revenue, after the marketplace increased its revenue by 70% versus the previous year.
Audioboom also reported that it achieved a record e-CPM (revenue per 1,000 downloads) in the first half of 2022, with $64.64 in May. However, global economic conditions that impacted the advertising market in the second half of the year lowered its average e-CPM to $52.88 which is only a 3% increase since the year before.
“The story of 2022 was of record revenue ($60.3 million), record adjusted EBITDA profit ($3.1 million), and record cash generation ($8.1 million) for Audioboom,” said Audioboom CEO Stuart Last. “We increased our market share considerably, continued on our mission to power podcasting for creators and brands, and we expanded our creator network diluting revenue concentration amongst our top tier of podcast creators.”
“Our progress was limited by an advertising market that weakened throughout the year due to macro-economic conditions, but I am pleased with our performance and remain confident in our future.”
Independent podcast company Acast also reported that it faced similar challenges with the global economic conditions which led to an operating loss of SEK 352.6 million in Q3 2022 for the company, and a 15% lay-off of its workforce as result to cut costs. However, Acast still managed to increase its revenue to SEK 139 million in net sales by the end of 2022, having achieved 36% net sales growth after successfully reducing its operating expenses.
Audioboom has already started to see growth in downloads and revenue in January and February 2023, with an increase of 10% in average monthly downloads and a record of 36 million listeners on its platform. Additionally, Last reported that although the advertising market is weaker than it was a year ago, Audioboom is confident that the business will continue growing with more than $50 million in advertising revenue already booked for the year.
The podcast company also recently announced that it renewed its partnership with one of its key creators Formula 1 and will continue to co-produce its official podcasts - F1: Beyond the Grid and F1 Nation - through its production arm, Audioboom Studios as well as distribute them on its platform and provide monetisation services through Showcase. Formula 1’s official podcasts, which feature in-depth interviews with current stars and exclusive behind-the-scenes stories, have surpassed more than 80 million downloads since their launch in 2018.
In addition to its renewed partnership with Formula 1, Audioboom also expanded its creator network in January 2023 after signing commercial agreements with five new podcasts including comedy podcast The Tim Dillon Show, award-winning scripted podcast Myths and Legends, award-winning true crime podcast The Minds of Madness, comedy show The Nateland Podcast, and autobiographical podcast Celebrity Memoir Book Club.
“2023 has started well, focusing on strengthening our fundamentals to ensure the business is primed for success as the advertising market improves and, as ever, being strict with our cost controls in order to maximise profitability,” said Last. “Already in Q1 we have delivered record audiences and record ad inventory levels. We have extended our key production and commercial partnership with Formula 1, expanded our creator network, and booked more than US$50 million of advertising revenue for the year.”
