In
previous entries here, I’ve looked at how podcast audiences and success are
measured. The podcast measurement and advertising services company Podtrac has
launched a new ranking that aims to become a standard for the success of
podcast networks in the way that Nielsen ratings measured TV networks.
The
list ranks a top 10 of podcast outlets based on their monthly audience in the
US and globally, but appears to be weighted to favor greater numbers in the US.
This becomes more relevant in the bottom half of the list in which The Moth and
Roman Mars (the owner of the 99% Invisible podcast) rank higher than the
Nerdist and WBUR (Boston’s NPR station) because they have more US listeners,
even though they have fewer listeners globally.
The
top 5 of the list’s first edition, for April, have numbers that are consistent
as they scale from US to global, but this certainly could be an issue anywhere
in the list in the future. NPR currently is dominant at the top of the list,
but the next three, This American Life, WNYC and HowStuffWorks, are close
together in either US or global numbers, or both.
The
list also has another obvious issue – comparing podcasting outlets that are
very different in scope, scale and focus. CBS, which ranks fifth on the list,
is drawing from the entire CBS TV News and CBS Radio operations for its material
– plus CBS Sports, yielding 474 different shows that collectively have 1.5
million listeners. (Presumably Podtrac is referring to Play.it, which is how
CBS branded its audio offerings last year).
This
American Life, which ranks second, offers just that show and “Serial,” and has
5.6 million listeners. Even if you sloppily divide the number of shows by the
number of listeners, This American Life and Serial have much more reach than
all of CBS’s efforts. There’s also no indication given of just how small the
listener figures may be for some or many
of the CBS shows, and how far above or below the average.
That
means CBS should arguably be ranked way lower on this list, or maybe not at
all. It’s possible that NBC, ABC, Fox or any number of media entities outside
of network television, have individual podcasts or small handfuls of podcasts
that reach more listeners than many or most CBS ones.
Perhaps
other commentators out there have similar criticisms of Podtrac’s top 10 list,
or other ones I haven’t considered. The point is that it’s too simple to go
with the numbers Podtrac uses if you’re really going to measure a media company’s
success in podcasting. Having one or two great shows with large audiences or a
small roster of such shows could be worthy of greater advertiser support, which
is the purpose of such a list. A “big three” TV network may not necessarily be
a “big three” podcaster, if there really can be such a thing.