Wizzard Media Hits 1 Billion Podcast Downloads

As a positive sign that Wizzard Media is doing things right, they’ve just reported that they’ve recorded an unprecedented one billion podcast download requests in 2007, a milestone for Wizzard Media, its podcasting clients and the entire podcasting industry.

Podcast Hosting Services

Wizzard Media, comprised of premier podcast-hosting services Libsyn, Switchpod and Blast Podcast, received an average of 2.75 million requests for podcast episodes per day in 2007, a nearly 300% increase over the daily average in 2006.

Podcast Advertising

Wizzard Media Advertising is about bringing together great brands with the best shows in podcasting. The combination of top media creators and Wizzards content verification software makes it safe and easy for advertisers to match their message with appropriate content. Partnering with Wizzard means your product or service will reach your targeted audience with the most effective delivery of your message.

Additionally, Wizzard announced more than 10 million ad insertions were delivered across the network in the fourth quarter of 2007 as a result of multiple advertising campaigns. This includes the U.S. Navy’s first-ever podcast advertising campaign in addition to other campaigns using Wizzard’s unique dynamic ad insertion technology. Wizzard’s achievement positions their quickly expanding advertising network as an even more compelling platform for advertisers.

Podcast Advertising Tracking and Measurement

Since adopting the Nielsen solution in August, 2007, the Wizzard Media Network documented steady growth of Nielsen-certified download data, rising 6% month over month. In the fourth quarter of 2007 alone, Wizzard was able to offer advertisers a catalog of more than 300 million Nielsen-certified ad opportunities using Wizzard’s unique dynamic ad insertion technology.

A Strategy Well Executed

“In the first half of 2007, we focused on building the network of podcasts we host through acquisition and internal growth as well as ‘packaging’ the shows in an appealing way for advertisers to understand,” said Chris Spencer, Wizzard CEO. “In the second half of 2007, we built a state-of-the-art ad insertion technology, created a professional advertising billing and reporting system, brought in a Nielsen measurement solution for advertisers, set up a strong ad sales force, demographic research and back office ad operations team, implemented our speech transcription system for increased advertising targetability, all the while seeing a dramatic increase in the number of download requests.

Spencer continues “We landed our first major advertiser and delivered millions of ads for them in the fourth quarter as well. These things took time to set up properly, but I believe we are now effectively positioned to monetize podcasts for our publishers and the substantial growth in podcast downloads and audience numbers show that we are growing faster than even our most aggressive internal projections. I believe this one billion download milestone will put us on the radar of major media companies and allow us to do substantially larger deals in the future.”

What’s Next for Podcasting?

The future is bright for new media on the Internet, and specifically for podcasting.

How do you see podcasting maturing in the next few years? Can you spot any areas for continued growth?

Share your thoughts by adding your comments below.