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Podcast Trend in India and its room to Monetize

Podcast Trend in India and its room to Monetize

The audio concept isn’t something new for Indians. Be it listening to the cricket commentary, the religious musings, or the radio, it’s deeply rooted in our culture. And with the proliferation of smartphones and affordable mobile internet, there had been increased consumption of streaming content online which had given both podcast listeners and creators, a good scope of turning to podcasts after Instagram and blogging, smartly tapping right avenues and revenues.

In spite of it being a well- received channel for more than a decade now, podcasts are experiencing unprecedented audience growth – a trend that has continued in today’s coronavirus-affected world as people turn more and more to digital media on their personal devices. The pandemic has forced people to stay at home, away from offices, businesses, schools and colleges forcing people to work from home and consume extra screen time on streaming platforms Despite this growing audience opportunity, podcast monetization is still very much in its infancy.

Mae Mariyam Thomas, Founder of Maed in India, a podcast production company says that- “Right now, podcasting is a bit of a wild west where anything goes. Currently the podcast industry is at a nascent stage in India. Listenership numbers are incomparable to those in the UK, US, Australia or Europe. But it’s growing steadily and there is a lot of curiosity around the space as this medium is considered new real estate for anyone looking for refreshing ways to communicate and cultivate new and loyal audiences

Within the next three to five years, the current state of podcasts is going to grow aided by advancements in transcription technology that are already in the works today .Let us take a look at what the immediate future holds for this burgeoning channel and advertising opportunity.

Why podcast monetization has room to run

Today’s podcast audiences represent a growing target for today’s top brands, both in terms of scale and affluence. India is the world’s third largest podcast listening market and as per a PwC report, the number of listeners is going to rise from four crore in 2018 to 17.61 crore in 2023. India’s music, radio and podcasts market was worth Rs 5,753 crore in 2018 and could hit upwards of Rs 10,000 crore by 2023.

Nisha Narayanan Director &COO Red FM and Magic FM says-‘Podcast internationally is dependent on adverting and there are established ad exchanges and a DSP/SSP ecosystem. In India, it is still at a nascent stage, and hence it requires advocacy in the trade community. We as a podcaster need to work with the brand and create case studies so that the trade community understands the effectiveness of podcast advertising. We should not do the mistake of looking at podcast as a reach based medium, unlike other mass media. Presently podcast garners approx. 10-15 USD CPT in the international market, which is much higher than the flighting of ads on a radio streaming feed. As the consumption of podcast grows in India, parallelly we expect the market to also to get ready for podcast advertising” –

Moreover, podcasts are particularly popular among younger audiences, with more than half of monthly listeners under the age of 35. According to a 2019 report by Deloitte, globally podcasts could be a USD 3.3 billion-plus business by 2025.

When much of the world went into lockdown in April and May, millions of people enthusiastically took to podcasts. In April, Apple announced that it had more than one million shows on Apple Podcasts. While Apple dominates the podcast market, the entry of platforms such as Pandora, Castbox and Spotify, shows the popularity of the medium.

According to Acast, one of the world’s largest global podcasting companies, the demand for comedy went up by 24 percent during the lockdown and education had a 20 percent increase. Episodes with ‘corona’ or ‘Covid’ in the title were downloaded over 27.5 million times globally. 

How podcasting will make the leap into the billions?

If you can make anything you do seem cool, then you can totally consider making money from merchandises. Tell any marketer that people are hooked to your content. They will whiff an advertising opportunity.

Mae added “I’ve seen the growth in numbers of Indian podcasts and podcasters that have multiplied in the last 5 years. If you look at what Apple Podcasts looked like 4-5 years ago, and the plethora of Indian shows that exist now, it is invigorating to see.  In India right now, podcasting is an exciting space to be a part of because it’s a new playground to frolic in. There are no rules, no one’s really winning, and you have the ability to truly enjoy creating something spectacular and build a loyal community around your show”  

While we’re seeing endured improvements in targeting and scaling across podcasting, there are brands which still aren’t fully committed to the medium. Podcast ad money becomes often the last line item on the buy and the first to be removed despite the proven success that podcasts ads have shown.

“Podcasting is a jewel that many of us are yet not aware of! We just cannot ignore the fact that what an amazing tool it is for not only your personal branding but also in getting magnetic effect over the world with just a simple tap! And soon it’s going to be the next big content creator’s arena, as audio is the future” says Taleha Khan, RJ and podcast coach and host

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One of the best ways to continue to advance the medium is to build upon the advances in podcasting technology, particularly on the ad side. Transcription for that matter, can be valuable for a number of reasons, ranging from brand safety to SEO. The dexterity to contextually mark podcasts more effectively by content will give advertisers another layer to target on top of audience demographics or purchase intent. For example, advertisers will be able to target ads to a particular episode if certain terms are mentioned more than once, or if multiple key words are mentioned together in the same episode. As audio transcription evolves and becomes a central part of the audio ad mix, this will also enable even greater monetization within the channel, particularly via automated exchanges.

What podcast transcription technology brings to the table ?

So, what is it going to take to enable sturdy contextual targeting within the podcast space? In one single word: transcription.

This is a hot area of innovation right now, with multiple companies, google included, investing in the powerful AI and machine learning capabilities needed to get this right within the podcast space. Within the next three to four years, transcription will be virtually ingrained directly into every podcast platform, letting the systems to instantly access and assess contextual data and brand safety parameters akin to what they currently do in other digital channels, including video and display.

Not just that but transcription will also enable a much better understanding of the actual substance of every episode, let alone the show’s topic or category. As podcasting will continue to earn a bigger seat at the table, transcription will impact other areas critical to the growth of the space such as discovery. This new capability will simultaneously open the podcast space up to far greater monetization opportunities, all while enabling brands to tap into this growing and highly attractive audience.

Sreeraman Thiagarajan , Co-Founder – Agrahyah Technologies/aawaz.com believes ” From a monetization point of view, we have just begun the journey, some of the leading financial and technology companies are telling their stories with us on aawaz.com, there is vast room for growth, the programmatic ads for audio is yet to be rolled out, we have come so far as to only have dynamic ads now”

He added – “The future of podcasts is in the ability of players like us and peers to tell a great story on audio and hold consumers attention, increasingly, we are seeing percolation of Voice Assistants in our lives, where audio form of content is what a consumer is listening to. This coupled with the fact we can listen to audio with eyes and hands free means more moments in a day to consumer content of your liking. Perhaps do some bartaan (clean dishes) while learning blockchain as as a podcast on aawaz” 

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