Right-wing politicians lifting Stefanovic’s podcast numbers
Karl Stefanovic gets appropriately attired for a chat with Barnaby Joyce
Viewership numbers for The Karl Stefanovic Show reveal that episodes featuring right-wing politicians are far more popular than his other interviews.
And the show’s producer is working to find a way to properly measure the success of the show, given that most current charts (such as the Australia Podcast Ranker) ignore Spotify video views and Youtube views.
Launching three weeks ago, the Youtube-hosted video podcast has released seven episodes to date, launching with a revealing conversation with controversial One Nation leader Pauline Hanson that was viewed over 140,000 times within two days of being posted.
That debut episode has now been watched 263,000 times, with a shorter clip of Hanson crying over a “betrayal” viewed over 50,000 times.
An episode featuring Liberal party senator Jacinta Price was posted at 2pm on Sunday afternoon, and by 11am the following day it had been watched over 75,000 times.
An interview with former National Party leader and recently minted One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce posted the prior Sunday has been watched over 124,000 times in a week, while right-wing political commentator Chris Katelaris (internet name: Big Chocky) has managed to draw 105,000 views in two weeks.
Stefanovic’s guests without obvious political affiliations have struggled to attract viewers.
An interview with UFC fighter Alexander Volkanovski, which was posted two days after Hanson’s episode, has only drawn 24,000 viewers in close to three weeks.
Celebrity chef Curtis Stone’s episode has been watched around 12,000 times (with an 8-minute clip from the episode boasting higher viewers numbers), while last Tuesday’s episode, starring Broncos head coach Michael “Madge” Maguire, has 14,000 views.
Karl’s interview with Jacinta Price has drawn over 75,000 viewers and counting in less than 24 hours
No doubt Stefanovic’s team has been watching this trend with interest. The show is just three weeks old, and already a qualified success.
Keshnee Kemp, the show’s founding partner, shared some deeper statistics on Linkedin over the weekend.
Over 141,700 hours of the show have been watched in three weeks, with total video views on Youtube at 927,500 as of Sunday (this has tipped over 1.18m since Kemp posted these figures). A teaser on Instagram was watched over 1.3m times.
Despite these impressive figures, don’t expect The Karl Stefanovic Show to appear in the top reaches of any of the current podcast charts.
On her Linkedin post, Kemp — who leads the show’s strategy, content, and marketing — said she has been “exploring how we can rank properly against other podcasts in Australia” but given the video-first format of the program, and that charts like the Australian Podcast Ranker only track audio and downloads, this “excludes a lot of what we’re building.”
Speaking to Mumbrella on Monday morning, Kemp said: “Based on my research, I can’t see an appropriate way to track performance given we’re a video-first podcast on Spotify and Youtube.”
The show also uploads an audio-only version to Apple Podcasts.
“But tracking is currently based on audio streams and downloads which is bizarre given the rise of video as the preferred podcast format,” she said.
“Neither of those metrics make sense for video formats, so it effectively excludes us from rankings.”
This is a roadblock that could impact the financial success of a video-first podcast looking to prove its worth to advertisers with like-for-like metrics.
The Karl Stefanovic Show is currently sponsor-less (although there are some prominent Rode microphone stands in shot) but Kemp reveals the show “plan[s] to work with the right sponsors who make sense for the audience and Karl”.
“We’re exploring direct strategic partnerships and sponsorships.”
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This podcast could come back to bite Nine. I’m not sure how Karl is supposed to maintain the illusion of being the “fair and balanced” Today show host when he is going “full Sky News” on his podcast.
Or, Nine might realise where the silent majority of its audience really lean.
Given the recent polling numbers, there is clearly a very large (and growing) number of Aussies clamoring for a Right of Far Left voice. Karl merely read the room and is tapping into that sentiment – at the right time and place.