Podtrac: iHeart Remains On Top Among Publishers, NPR Rises To Second Among Sales Nets.

March came in like a lion for iHeartPodcasts as the company delivered 178,000 U.S. streams and downloads, according to the monthly update from Podtrac. That’s up nearly 8% from 165,000 in the shorter month of February. Podtrac says iHeart remained on top with a reach of nearly 33 million listeners, making it the biggest publisher of any that it tracks. The podcaster network had 844 active shows in March, down slightly from 849 in February.

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 7 million  unique listeners, up from 6.8 million in February, and 24.3 million U.S. streams and downloads, an increase from 21.7 million in February. Vox Media ranked third, with 6.9 million listeners (up from 6.3 million one month earlier) and 20.9 million U.S. streams and downloads, compared to just under 18 million in February. February, of course, had three fewer days of listening data than March.

Podtrac says among the publishers and networks it measures,13 of the top 20 saw increases in unique monthly audience in March vs. February. All the U.S. ranking participants grew downloads and streams in March over the shorter month of February. Similarly, all the top global networks were up in global downloads, streams & views in March over February.

Among the sales networks Podtrac measures, the iHeart Audience Network held on to first with 371 million downloads and streams in the U.S. last month and a unique audience of nearly 69 million. The figures are not only for iHeart-produced shows, but the more than 27,000 podcasts it reps in the U.S.

NPR no longer is measured as an individual publisher, but its sales network shot into second place with 22.6 million unique listeners and 120.7 million U.S. streams and downloads. 

Meanwhile, Acast edged out Libsyn in U.S. monthly audience (22.1 million) to finish third among sales networks, compared to 21.9 million for Libsyn, which came in fourth in this metric. However, Libsyn ranked third among sales networks with 103 million U.S. streams and downloads, up significantly 85 million in 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 32,000 shows worldwide. Podtrac says YouTube delivered 227 million of iHeart’s overall downloads and streams last month, representing more than a quarter of its total 824 million downloads and streams.

YouTube accounted for an even bigger portion of third-place Libsyn’s streams and downloads, with 139 million YouTube views representing more just over half of Libsyn’s 274 million worldwide total.

The number was even bigger for Paramount, which had 49 million YouTube streams last month, which accounted for 68% of its total 72 million streams and downloads around the globe during February.

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.