As Australia’s media and entertainment industry continues to feel the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world’s largest podcast company – Acast – has announced new updates to its Acast Open platform that will provide further support and revenue opportunities to local, independent podcast creators.
The announcement comes as the local podcast market continues to boom, with Acast hitting a record 25.3 million listens in Australia last month.
Acast Open provides a platform for new and independent podcasters to capitalise on this remarkable audience growth, while generating new revenue opportunities from ads via Acast Marketplace.
Acast co-founder and CPTO Johan Billgren said: “We launched Acast Open to put the same tools we built for the world’s biggest and best podcasts and publishers into the hands of every podcaster on the planet.”
“Now we’re further democratising podcasting, opening up the possibility for anyone on Acast Open to monetise across any and every podcast player there is — so they can start seeing financial payback for all the efforts they’ve made to build dedicated, engaged audiences around the world. We’ll continue to do everything we can to support their love of storytelling and the incredible audio content they work so hard to put out.”
Speaking of what these advancements mean locally in Australia, Henrik Isaksson, managing director for Acast Australia and New Zealand, said: “More than ever before, people talk to us about wanting to start a podcast. Now, with Acast Open, we not only have an incredible, easy-to-use tool that provides access to the best tech in the industry, we can also tell all these potential podcasters that they could make money from their show. It feels great to be able to support local creators.”
Since launching in 2014, Acast has quickly built a reputation as the creators’ platform of choice, working with local Australian podcasts such as It’s a Lot with Abbie Chatfield, Better Than Yesterday with Osher Günsberg and A Podcast of One’s Own with Julia Gillard.
Acast Open is the world-leading platform for anyone looking to create their own podcast for the first time, or to take the next step in their podcasting journey. Users get access to the world’s most sophisticated podcast hosting engine and the best tools in the industry, with membership available in three tiers, one of which — ‘Starter’ — is free.
Acast has now expanded its Acast Open offering, announcing that any show on its Acast Open platform can now apply to be part of the Acast Marketplace. This means Acast Open podcasts now have the potential to generate revenue from ad impressions.
Any podcaster opting into ads on Acast Open will receive monthly payouts, depending on the number of times an ad is served to a person listening to their show (each time is known as an ‘ad impression’). Acast sells ads on a CPM (cost per mille) basis, with ad impressions measured in line with strict guidelines set out by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) — and is the only podcast company certified against all four of the IAB’s measurement metrics.
Acast Open launched in November 2019, and more than 5,000 users in more than 100 different countries have already signed up to the platform. Australia is the fifth most popular market for Acast Open, preceded only by the U.S., UK, France and Sweden.
