The podcasting format has been around for decades but it’s seen significant growth in the past few years growing ad revenue and new shows popping up from all over the world, including at Straight Arrow News. SAN’s Ryan Robertson has held many positions in his broadcast career, including reporter, producer, and news director, and now he’s taken on a new role as a podcaster.
“What a time to be alive when we can live in this opportunity that this technology that allows us to reach so many people in so many places with relative ease to me is just kind of mind-boggling,” Robertson told Straight Arrow News.
Each week, Robertson speaks on the latest developments in the military world in his podcast “Weapons and Warfare.” He said the medium is giving him the freedom to talk about these topics as they are meant to be discussed with an audience on a wide range of platforms.
“We’re given a certain amount of time to tell our stories that we gather from around the country and really explore the space on how we do that, we’re not pigeonholed into a certain formula or certain format,” Robertson said. “We’re able to say this is the best way this story needs to be told, so that’s how we’re going to tell this story.”
Podcasting by the numbers
Robertson is part of the ever-growing population of podcasters behind the resurgence of the audio industry. Not since radio was king have people flocked to audio as their go-to source for entertainment. According to data from Loopex Digital, there are over 414 million podcasts out in the world, each trying to get listeners to like and subscribe.
Straight Arrow News spoke with iHeartPodcasts president Will Pearson as he was on his way to discuss a potential podcasting project. Home to more than 750 original podcasts, iHeart is the No. 1 podcast publisher in the world.
“What’s been so incredibly exciting over the past four years is seeing podcasting develop into the newest mass reach medium,” Pearson said. “If you look back five, six years ago, you’d call it a niche medium, just this really exciting, interesting space, just not reaching the masses. Today, podcasting is reaching 135 million people every single month in the U.S. alone, almost half a billion people when you look beyond that.”
Though the word podcast was first coined in 2004, the medium truly popped onto the scene most notably a decade ago when “Serial” grabbed listeners by their ears. The series has been downloaded more than 300 million times.
“Serial” became the first podcast to receive a Peabody Award and launched the true-crime genre, inspiring not only podcast creators but influencing television productions as seen in Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building.”
In 2006, 22% of the adult population in the U.S. was aware of podcasting. In 2022, that number rose to 80%, according to Statista.
Edison Research’s Infinite Dial 2024 survey found 47% of Americans 12 years and older have listened to a podcast in the past week, up 10% over last year.
In addition, 192 million people, 67% of the U.S. population, said they have listened to a podcast in their lifetime.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Matt Shapo said there is pretty much a podcast for everyone these days.
“There’s this incredible opportunity for people that want to learn or know or dive into any topic of interest to them across so many different genres and verticals,” Shapo said. “That’s the beauty of podcasting.”
“There’s so much wonderful content out there that podcast creators are producing every day and there’s this wide canvas of content that people who love to learn about things get a chance to interact with,” Shapo continued.
Let’s Make A Deal: Podcast Edition
The podcast business is booming with the biggest podcast of all, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” with over 14.5 million followers on the Spotify platform alone. Spotify struck a multi-year deal with the host earlier this year reportedly worth around $250 million dollars.
That news came just days after SiriusXM’s reported $100 million three-year deal for exclusive rights to SmartLess, the podcast hosted by actors Jason Batemen, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett.
This does not mean these podcasts are only available on these specific platforms; it just means these audio outlets are able to give their subscribers perks like early access and the companies themselves gain ad sale revenue.
And, boy, are there ad sales!
“A lot of people are describing this current era as a golden age of audio and podcasting is obviously right smack dab in the center in this renaissance of audio,” Shapo said. “You’re starting to see more large-scale brand advertisers coming to podcasting, understanding that they can find the audience they want to find, they can tell the stories they want to tell, and they can find the reach and the scale they need.”
According to the IAB, advertising revenue is projected to increase 12 percent this year to $2 billion and reach nearly $2.6 billion by 2026.
“There really is something very special about the deep-dive conversations that podcasters tend to have — really long-form content that you don’t get almost anywhere else, really bespoke content produced by really passionate people who form these incredibly close, parasocial bonds with their listeners, really become meaningful relationships,” Shapo said. “Those meaningful relationships between the people creating the content and the people consuming the content is really what’s driven all this spectacular growth.”
Not only is the growth of the first-time advertisers something to talk about, Pearson noted that the change in the type of advertisers is a testament to the strength of the podcasting industry.
“So if you look back five or six years ago, the majority of your advertisers in this space would have been what we call direct response advertisers, you think your mattress companies, your box meal companies, you know those that give you a discount code to say, ‘The next time you visit the website, be sure to use the code for our podcast and you’ll get a discount on this,’” Pearson said.
“Those direct response advertisers are the ones that proved the effectiveness of host read ads and podcast advertising. And then big brands started waking up to that and realizing, ‘Oh, wow, this is an opportunity to engage people in a very intimate and new and direct way.’”
And podcast listeners are paying attention to all these ads. Dentsu’s Attention Economy Podcast Study showed podcast ads hold consumers’ attention longer than social media, digital video and TV ads.
The IAB said the comedy and sports genres are at the top of the list when it comes to both listeners and advertisers. Shapo said this shows people are not just heading to podcasts to be informed and find community, but also to kick back and be entertained.
Rewatch podcasts bring on the nostalgia
There is another podcast genre doing the same, while also making nostalgia hip: the rewatch podcast. Examples include “Where Everybody Knows Your Name,” “That Was Us,” The Ringer’s “The Rewatchables,” and “How Rude Tanneritos: A Full House Rewatch Podcast.”
Pearson said these trips down memory lane make up one of the most popular genres for iHeartMedia.
“I guess that was another thing when you think about what people are looking for in podcasting — that bit of escape or that entertainment from all that is stress relieving, looking back to times that we’re less stressful,” Pearson said. “You know, thinking about the nostalgia play in podcasting is a huge one.”
“And so you know, being able to say you know what, I want to look back to 10 years ago when I was in love with the show ‘One Tree Hill,’ and to have Sophia Bush and the cast from ‘One Tree Hill’ being able to revisit that show with something like ‘Drama Queens,’ and so we’ve probably got, you know, 10 different shows in the sort of broader rewatch/companion show category.”
Shapo said advertisers are also looking for ways to be part of the podcast.
Take Hyundai for example and the rewatch podcast “Pod Meets World” with the cast of the 90s ABC TGIF sitcom “Boy Meets World.” Hyundai recently sponsored episodes of the show where the cast stayed in the house depicted on the sitcom and is named in talent reads each week.
Shapo said new technologies in analyzing podcast content and viewership are helping to quell advertisers’ fears that the podcasting world is the Wild Wild West.
“As we continue to see advances in the way artificial intelligence is used to analyze podcast episode transcripts and not just understand it in sort of a blunt, keyword-based way, where there is safety to be found and where there is alignment to be found for brand advertisers,” Shapo said, adding, “but also to really get into the sentiment and the true understanding of a podcast episode, it opens up all sorts of contextually opportunities and chances for brands to do brand storytelling in these incredibly aligned ways.”
All about the audience
In the end, what these experts agree on is that it’s not the relationship between the advertiser and the show that draws the public in, but the connection between the host and the listener.
“You have this extraordinary relationship between people who are producing podcast content and the people who are coming to consume it,” Shapo said. “That is the core bedrock reason that underlies all growth stories. That is the fundamental reason you will continue to see growth in this medium.”
That’s Ryan Robertson’s goal — to continue to develop that connection with his “Weapons and Warfare” viewers as his podcast community grows.
“One of the exciting things about being new is that we’re building that relationship with the audience,” Robertson said. “We get the opportunity to build it new and build it fresh for a new product. There are other people talking about war and military-type topics, but not in the way we’re doing it where we’re really trying to meet the masses.”
And he is not shy about joining in with that ubiquitous but useful podcaster phrase.
“I encourage everyone to like, subscribe and help us grow this thing,” Robertson said.
[BROCK KOLLER]
RYAN ROBERTSON HAS HELD MANY POSITIONS IN HIS BROADCAST CAREER. REPORTER…PRODUCER…NEWS DIRECTOR. .
RECENTLY HE TOOK ON A NEW ROLE HERE AT STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS – PODCASTER.
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
“What a time to be alive when we can live in this opportunity that this technology that allows us to reach so many people in so many places with relative ease to me is just kind of mind boggling.”
[BROCK KOLLER]
EACH WEEK RYAN SPEAKS ON THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN THE MILITARY WORLD IN HIS PODCAST “WEAPONS AND WARFARE.”
HE SAYS THE MEDIUM IS GIVING HIM THE FREEDOM TO TALK ABOUT THESE TOPICS AS THEY ARE MEANT TO BE DISCUSSED TO AN AUDIENCE ON A WIDE RANGE OF PLATFORMS.
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
“We’re given a certain amount of time to tell our stories that we gather from around the country and really explore the space on how we do that, we’re not pigeonholed into a certain formula or certain format, we’re able to say this is the best way this story needs to be told, so that’s how we’re going to tell this story.”
[BROCK KOLLER]
RYAN IS PART OF THE EVER-GROWING POPULATION OF PODCASTERS BEHIND THE RESURGENCE OF THE AUDIO INDUSTRY.
NOT SINCE RADIO WAS KING HAVE PEOPLE FLOCKED TO AUDIO AS THEIR GO-TO SOURCE FOR ENTERTAINMENT. BUT WHO KNOWS THE REASON?
“The Shadow Knows….hahah”
WHAT WE DO KNOW IS THERE ARE OVER 414 MILLION PODCASTS OUT IN THE WORLD – EACH TRYING TO GET YOU TO LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE.
[WILL PEARSON]
“What’s been so incredibly exciting over the past four years is seeing podcasting develop into the newest mass reach medium.”
[BROCK KOLLER]
WILL PEARSON IS THE PRESIDENT OF IHEARTPODCASTS – — THE NUMBER ONE PODCAST PUBLISHER IN THE WORLD – WITH MORE THAN 750 ORIGINALS TO ITS NAME.
[WILL PEARSON]
“If you look back five, six years ago, you’d call it a niche medium, just this really exciting, interesting space, just not reaching the masses. Today, podcasting is reaching 135 million people every single month in the U.S. alone, almost half a billion people when you look beyond that.”
[BROCK KOLLER]
THOUGH THE WORD PODCAST WAS FIRST COINED IN 2004 – THE MEDIUM TRULY POPPED ONTO THE SCENE MOST NOTABLY A DECADE AGO WHEN SERIAL GRABBED LISTENERS BY THEIR EARS.
[SARAH KOENING]
“FROM THIS AMERICAN LIFE AND WBEZ CHICAGO, IT’S SERIAL – ONE STORY TOLD WEEK BY WEEK. I’M SARAH KOENING.”
[BROCK KOLLER]
DOWNLOADED MORE THAN 300 MILLION TIMES, SERIAL BECAME THE FIRST PODCAST TO RECEIVE A PEABODY AWARD AND LAUNCHED THE TRUE-CRIME GENRE OF PODCASTING
THE SERIES INSPIRING NOT ONLY PODCAST CREATORS – BUT INFLUENCING TELEVISION PRODUCTIONS.
[ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING TEASER]
[BROCK KOLLER]
IN 2006 – 22 PERCENT OF THE ADULT POPULATION IN THE US WAS AWARE OF PODCASTING – IN 2022 – THAT NUMBER ROSE TO 80 PERCENT.
IN EDISON RESEARCH’S INFINITE DIAL 2024 SURVEY – IT FOUND 47% OF AMERICANS 12 YEARS AND OLDER HAVE LISTENED TO A PODCAST IN THE PAST WEEK – UP 10 PERCENT OVER LAST YEAR.
192 MILLION PEOPLE – 67% OF THE US POPULATION – SAY THEY HAVE LISTENED TO A PODCAST IN THEIR LIFETIME.
THE INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING BUREAU’S MATT SHAPO SAYS THERE’S PRETTY MUCH A PODCAST FOR EVERYONE THESE DAYS.
[MATT SHAPO]
“There’s this incredible opportunity for people that want to learn or know or dive into any topic of interest to them across so many different genres and verticals. That’s the beauty of podcasting. / There’s so much wonderful content out there that podcast creators are producing every day and there’s this wide canvas of content that people who love to learn about things get a chance to interact with.”
[BROCK KOLLER]
THE PODCAST BUSINESS IS BOOMING!
“BOOM!”
THE BIGGEST PODCAST OF ALL – THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE – WITH OVER 14 POINT FIVE MILLION FOLLOWERS ON THE SPOTIFY PLATFORM ALONE.
SPOTIFY STRIKING A MULTI-YEAR DEAL WITH THE HOST EARLIER THIS YEAR REPORTEDLY WORTH AROUND 250 MILLION DOLLARS.
THAT NEWS CAME JUST DAYS AFTER SIRIUSXM’S ANNOUNCEMENT –
[SMARTLESS OPEN]
“SMART-LESS”
[BROCK KOLLER]
A REPORTED 100 MILLION DOLLARS FOR A THREE-YEAR DEAL FOR EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS TO SMARTLESS – THE PODCAST HOSTED BY ACTORS JASON BATEMEN, SEAN HAYES AND WILL ARNETT.
NOW THIS DOESN’T MEAN THESE PODCASTS ARE ONLY AVAILABLE ON THESE SPECIFIC PLATFORMS – IT JUST MEANS THESE AUDIO OUTLETS ARE ABLE TO GIVE THEIR SUBSCRIBERS PERKS LIKE EARLY ACCESS AND THE COMPANIES THEMSELVES GAIN AD SALE REVENUE.
AND, BOY, ARE THERE AD SALES!
[MATT SHAPO]
A lot of people are describing this current era as a golden age of audio and podcasting is obviously right smack dab in the center in this renaissance of audio.
“You’re starting to see more large-scale brand advertisers coming to podcasting, understanding that they can find the audience they want to find, they can tell the stories they want to tell, and they can find the reach and the scale they need.”
[BROCK KOLLER]
ACCORDING TO THE IAB – ADVERTISING REVENUE IS PROJECTED TO INCREASE 12 PERCENT THIS YEAR TO 2 BILLION DOLLARS — AND REACH NEARLY 2 POINT 6 BILLION BY 2026.
[MATT SHAPO]
“There really is something very special about the deep dive conversations that podcasters tend to have. Really longform content that you don’t get almost anywhere else. Really bespoke content produced by really passionate people who form these incredibly close, parasocial bonds with their listeners, really become meaningful relationships. That, those meaningful relationships between the people creating the content and the people consuming the content is really what’s driven all this spectacular growth.”
[BROCK KOLLER]
NOT ONLY IS THE GROWTH OF THE FIRST-TIME PODCASTER ADVERTISER SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT – IHEARTMEDIA’S WILL PEARSON POINTS OUT THAT THE CHANGE IN THE TYPE OF ADVERTISERS IS A TESTAMENT TO THE STRENGTH OF THE PODCASTING INDUSTRY.
[WILL PEARSON]
“So if you look back five or six years ago, the majority of your advertisers in this space would have been what we call direct response advertisers, you think your mattress companies, your box meal companies, you know those that give you a discount code to say you know, the next time you visit the website, be sure to use the code for our podcast and you’ll get a discount on this…
“…those direct response advertisers are the ones that proved the effectiveness of host read ads and podcast advertising. And then big brands started waking up to that and realizing, Oh, wow, this is an opportunity to engage people in a very intimate and new and direct way.”
[BROCK KOLLER]
AND PODCAST LISTENERS ARE PAYING ATTENTION TO ALL THESE ADS. IN FACT — DENTSU’S ATTENTION ECONOMY PODCAST STUDY SHOWS PODCAST ADS HOLD CONSUMERS ATTENTION LONGER THAN SOCIAL MEDIA, DIGITAL VIDEO AND TV ADS.
IAB SAYS THE COMEDY AND SPORTS GENRES ARE AT THE TOP OF THE LIST WHEN IT COMES TO BOTH LISTENERS AND ADVERTISERS.
SHAPO SAYS THIS SHOWS PEOPLE AREN’T JUST HEADING TO PODCASTS TO BE INFORMED AND FIND COMMUNITY – BUT ALSO TO KICK BACK AND BE ENTERTAINED.
ONE OTHER PODCAST GENRE DOING THAT –
WHILE ALSO MAKING NOSTALGIA HIP – THE REWATCH PODCAST.
[WHERE EVERYBODY KNOWS YOUR NAME]
“WHERE EVERYBODY KNOWS YOUR NAME WITH ME TED DANSON AND WOODY HARRELSON (SOMETIMES)…we could hang out together”
“That was Us”
“We big three decided that we will be taking Tuesdays back. That’s right we are your hosts of that was us a rewatch podcast starting May 14th and continuing week after week you will be able to listen to our episodes wherever you get your podcasts and you’ll be able to watch our podcasts on the That was Us YouTube channel.”
[Full House rewatch]
“Andrea we are bringing back the milkman, the paperboy and evening TV.” “We’re excited to introduce How Rude Tanneritos: A Full House Rewatch Podcast.”
[BROCK KOLLER]
FULL HOUSE CAST MEMBERS ACTUALLY HAVE TWO REWATCH PODCASTS!
AND THEN THERE’S THE RINGER’S BILL SIMMONS WHO HOSTS A REWATCH PODCAST CALLED “THE REWATCHABLES.”
PEARSON SAYS THESE TRIPS DOWN MEMORY LANE MAKE UP ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR GENRES FOR IHEART.
[WILL PEARSON]
“I guess that was another thing when you think about what people are looking for in podcasting. You know, that that bit of escape or that entertainment from all that is stress relieving, looking back to times that we’re less stressful. You know, thinking about the nostalgia play in podcasting is a huge one.”
And so you know, being able to say you know what, I want to look back to 10 years ago when I was in love with the show One Tree Hill and to have Sophia Bush and the cast from One Tree Hill being able to revisit that show with something like Drama Queens, and so we’ve probably got, you know, 10 different shows in the sort of broader rewatch slash companion show category.”
[BROCK KOLLER]
SHAPO SAYS ADVERTISERS ARE ALSO LOOKING FOR WAYS TO BE PART OF THE PODCAST.
TAKE HYUNDAI IN THE REWATCH PODCAST “POD MEETS WORLD” WITH THE CAST OF THE 90S TGIF SITCOM BOY MEETS WORLD.
[Pod Meets World Ad]
“When it comes to Pod Meets World we’re synonymous with two things: watching our younger selves on a TV show from 30 years ago and loving Hyundai.”
[BROCK KOLLER]
HYUNDAI ALSO SPONSORING EPISODES OF THE SHOW WHERE THE CAST STAYED IN THE HOUSE DEPICTED ON THE SITCOM.
SHAPO SAYS NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN ANALYZING PODCAST CONTENT AND VIEWERSHIP ARE HELPING TO QUELL ADVERTISERS’ FEARS THAT THE PODCASTING WORLD IS THE WILD WILD WEST.
[MATT SHAPO]
“One of the terrific advancements we’ve seen over the last year or two is this incredible uptick in the usage of brand suitability and brand safety filtering in podcasting.
[Ted Danson]
“If you’re anything like me.”
[MATT SHAPO]
“As we continue to see advances in the way artificial intelligence is used to analyze podcast episode transcripts and not just understand in sort of a blunt keyword based way where there is safety to be found and where there is alignment to be fond for brand advertisers but also to really get into the sentiment and the true understanding of a podcast episode it opens up all sorts of contextually opportunities and chances for brands to do brand storytelling in these incredibly aligned ways.”
[BROCK KOLLER]
IN THE END – IT’S NOT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ADVERTISER AND THE SHOW THAT DRAWS THE PUBLIC IN – BUT THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE HOST AND THE LISTENER.
[MATT SHAPO]
“You have this extraordinary relationship between people who are producing podcast content and the people who are coming to consume it. That is the core bedrock reason that underlies all growth stories. That is the fundamental reason you will continue to see growth in this medium.”
[BROCK KOLLER]
THAT’S THE GOAL FOR RYAN ROBERTSON – TO CONTINUE TO DEVELOP THAT CONNECTION WITH HIS “WEAPONS AND WARFARE” VIEWERS AS HIS PODCAST COMMUNITY GROWS.
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
“One of the exciting things about being new is that we’re building that, we’re building that relationship with the audience…”
“We get the opportunity to build it new and build it fresh for a new product – there’s other people talking about war and military-type topics, but not in the way we’re doing it where we’re really trying to meet the masses.”
[BROCK KOLLER]
AND RYAN’S NOT SHY ABOUT JOINING IN WITH THAT UBIQUITOUS BUT USEFUL PODCASTER EXPRESSION
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
“I encourage everyone to like, subscribe and help us grow this thing.”
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