ARN reports 72% jump in listening for podcast network

The iHeartPodcast Network Australia has released October listening data, claiming a 72% jump since the start of 2020 (October 2020 vs January 2020).

This makes October a record month for listening across the platform, parent company Australian Radio Network (ARN), said.

ARN also broke the data down to “pre-COVID” (January to mid-March) and “current” (mid-March to October), and said listening had increased 44% between the two periods.

The data is collected by technology provider Megaphone from over 1 million devices.

Most categories also experienced a jump month on month, with sports podcast listening said to be up 15% month on month, and business and finance up 9%. Catch-up radio climbed 4%, while news was up 3%, and comedy 0.2%.

Entertainment and lifestyle listening was said to be stable between September and October.

Technology and science, true crime, and health all experienced falls, down 1%, 5% and 11% month on month, ARN said.

The data was released at the same time that iHeartPodcast announced an expanded partnership with measurement company Podsights.