ABC News tops podcast ranker for first time – but there are major caveats
ABC News Top Stories is officially the most-listened-to podcast in the country – although there are some big caveats.
The ABC podcast had 691,318 listeners throughout the month, according to the Australian Podcast Ranker for December, figures that were actually down from November’s 750,742.
However, both Casefile and Hamish and Andy stopped posting new episodes in December, which obviously impacts listenership in a big way. Casefile listeners fell by over 200,000 from November, while Hamish and Andy shed almost 400,000 – understandable given their back catalogue has less replay value than Casefile’s evergreen, episodic format.
On top of this, there’s the pure volume of ABC News Top Stories’ podcast uploads.
By virtue of its format, the ABC uploaded 412 episodes this month, meaning their average unique listenership falls to under 1,700 per episode.
Even when dividing the total download number of 2.18 million, this still only accounts for 5,297 downloads per episode.
It’s comparing apples and androids, so to speak – but it’s still a major figurative victory for the ABC, who only joined the official rankings system last November – when 34 of their podcasts flooded the top 200.
Likewise, BBC have officially entered the podcast ranker this month, with its highest debut being BBC Global News Podcast, which hit #33 on the Top Podcasts chart (as opposed to the local-only chart, this chart includes podcasts made overseas, but sold locally – such as Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, which is represented by SCA.)
The BBC Global News Podcast had 170,626 listeners for December, and 647,043 downloads.
The BBC’s podcast suite is represented by ARN in Australia – unlike in their homeland, the BBC is a commercial, ad-selling entity in the Australian market – and, as they told Mumbrella last year, they mean business.
Check out the entire chart here.
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