Wizzard: 1.2 Billion Download Requests in 2008
Mar 20th, 2009 | By Elisabeth Lewin | Category: Featured Story, Making Money with Podcasts, Podcasting, Podcasting Networks 
Podcasting network Wizzard today announced preliminary totals for 2008, posting record revenues of $6,108,140, an increase of $944,649, or approximately 18%, from 2007 revenue figures. Executives from the compay point to the ongoing growth and expansion of their media and podcasting services and healthcare operations.
Download requests: Of particular interest to our readers, Wizzard announced podcast network results for the 4th quarter of 2008 and the first two months of 2009. In the fourth quarter of 2008, the Wizzard Media Network received 307,648,694 download requests for episodes ( up from approx. 270 million requests during that same quarter in 2007). The Q4 numbers contribute to the more than 1.2 billion download requests in all of 2008.
Adding Shows: During that time, Wizzard’s publishing platform also grew by over ten thousand new podcast shows, to approximately 17 thousand. For comparison, 2,831 new shows were added in 2007.
Audience size: Wizzard Media Network’s audience grew from approximately 10 million “unique individuals per month” in 2007 to 15 million unique indiv/month in 2008. The total number of unique requests for podcast downloads throughout 2008 reached approximately 35 million.
Advertising: Wizzard increased network ad impressions in the last quarter of 2008 to 8.8 million ads delivered (vs. 5.5 million ads Q3 of 2008).
During a time of economic downturn, and declining revenues among older, more established media, it is heartening to see podcasting networks like Wizzard (and Blubrry, and Personal Life Media, among others) sharing news of growth in audience size, number of series, and interested advertisers and sponsors.
Awesome stats, thank you, I can use these on a presentation on Monday!
Just goes to show that as we get further along in this deep recession and travel becomes a prohibitively expensive in terms of cash outlay, man-power required, carbon expenditure, tele-presence and video/audio-podcasting will reduce the amount of travel we actually need to do.
These trends can only help Wizzard Media and LibSyn.
Didn’t they have 1 billion downloads last year?
They only grew about 20% this year. That’s not exactly going viral.
200 Thousand- 20 minute downloads! I guess that’s not impressive…are you kidding me!
Sorry…Mistake…did I say 200 Thousand, NOT! That is 200 MILLION, 20 minute downloads. Impressive to say the least!!!!!
Wizzard is the foremost leader in the podcasting industry. Everything they do is first class and their management team, starting with Chris Spencer, is irreplaceable. They are able to recognize trends long before they actually emerge and can position Wizzard strategically to capitalize on these shifts. They recognized years ago what print media is now only starting to comprehend: digital media is the future. Kudos to Wizzard and their growth!