The number of shows in the iHeartPodcasts portfolio grew by 17 between January and February, and that helped give the company a bump its U.S. unique audience last month, according to the monthly update from Podtrac. It says iHeart remained on top with 165 million total downloads and streams, and a reach of nearly 33 million listeners, making it the biggest publisher of any it tracks.
The Walt Disney Company — whose shows include those produced by ABC News and ESPN — remained the second-biggest individual publisher last month among those measured by Podtrac. Disney had 6.8 million unique listeners and 21.7 million downloads. Vox Media ranked third, with 6.3 million listeners and just under 18 million downloads.
Podtrac says among the publishers it measures, half of the top 20 publishers saw increases in unique monthly audience in February vs. January. But only two publishers had increases in download numbers month-to-month.
Among the sales networks Podtrac measures, the iHeart Audience Network held on to first with 334 million downloads and streams in the U.S. last month and a unique audience of nearly 68 million. The figures are not only for iHeart-produced shows, but the more than 21,000 podcasts it reps in the U.S.
Libsyn remained in second place. Podtrac says Libsyn had more than 85 million downloads and 22 million listeners via the shows in its network last month. Acast ranked third with 21 million unique listeners and 82 million downloads. NPR no longer is measured as an individual publisher, but its sales network ranked fourth with 111 million downloads and 20 million listeners in the U.S. during February.
Podtrac’s measurement of the top global publishers and networks shows YouTube is playing a larger role in show delivery beyond U.S. borders. The iHeartPodcast Audience Network easily remained atop its ranker, repping nearly 30,000 shows worldwide. Podtrac says YouTube delivered 162 million of iHeart’s overall downloads and streams last month, representing nearly a quarter of its total 697 million downloads and streams.
YouTube accounted for an even bigger portion of third-place Libsyn’s streams and downloads, with 93 million YouTube views representing nearly half of Libsyn’s 207 million worldwide total.
The number was even bigger for Paramount, which had more than 40 million YouTube streams last month, which accounted for two-thirds of its total streams and downloads around the globe during February. Smaller — but still significant YouTube streams — also boosted numbers for Sonoro and Daily Wire.
Podtrac’s rankings only include publishers and networks that subscribe to its service, which means that some large podcast distributors, such as SiriusXM, Spotify and Wondery, are not included in its monthly update.