Afewdatapointsaboutpodcastadvertising

MarketWatch’s Frank Barnako published a piece (free sub req’d) about podcast advertising, out of which a few nuggets of information are worth noting:

• Podshow claims to have reached in Q405 their 2006 revenue target of $300 to $400K, and predicts sales in the millions of dollars this year.

• There seems to be a consensus that there’s money to be made by recycling established media in the podcast world, too. Michael Greeson, president of the Diffusion Group of Dallas, pointed out that NPR recorded 4 million downloads in the first two months it offered podcasts.

• Last summer, Greeson issued a research report projecting nearly 60 million people in the United States will be listening to podcasts by 2010. The report also estimated 15.5 million portable players would be sold last year; the tally was closer to 22 million.

• Cameron Reilly, the founder of the Podcast Network of Australia, is achieving between $40 and $100 cost-per-thousand on his podcasts, but this level of revenue will only be accessible to the most popular podcasts because of their traffic and/or demographics.

• At least half-dozen companies have announced plans to offer menus of podcasts to advertisers. Firms like Podtrac Inc. say that they will do the selling and help podcasters insert ads in shows, and take less than half of the revenue as commission.