Wizzard Media, the industry’s largest podcasting network and a division of Wizzard Software (OTCBB: WIZD), today announced the company recorded an unprecedented one billion podcast download requests in 2007, a milestone for Wizzard Media, its podcasting clients and the entire podcasting industry. Wizzard Media, comprised of premier podcast-hosting services Libsyn, Switchpod and Blast Podcast, received an average of 2.75 million requests for podcast episodes per day in 2007, a nearly 300% increase over the daily average in 2006.
The Company attributes this substantial increase in download requests to the growing popularity of these internet radio and television style shows with consumers. According to demographic survey data collected by Wizzard Media, nearly 40% of respondents are new podcast audience members and have been watching or listening to podcasts for less than one year. Opt-in survey data has been collected on over 20,000 audience members in the second half of 2007.
Additionally, Wizzard announced more than 10 million ad insertions were delivered across the network in the fourth quarter of 2007 as a result of multiple advertising campaigns. This includes the U.S. Navy’s first-ever podcast advertising campaign in addition to other campaigns using Wizzard’s unique dynamic ad insertion technology. Wizzard’s achievement positions their quickly expanding advertising network as an even more compelling platform for advertisers. Since adopting the Nielsen solution in August, 2007, the Wizzard Media Network documented steady growth of Nielsen-certified download data, rising 6% month over month. In the fourth quarter of 2007 alone, Wizzard was able to offer advertisers a catalog of more than 300 million Nielsen-certified ad opportunities using Wizzard’s unique dynamic ad insertion technology.
“In the first half of 2007, we focused on building the network of podcasts we host through acquisition and internal growth as well as ‘packaging’ the shows in an appealing way for advertisers to understand,” said Chris Spencer, Wizzard CEO. “In the second half of 2007, we built a state-of-the-art ad insertion technology, created a professional advertising billing and reporting system, brought in a Nielsen measurement solution for advertisers, set up a strong ad sales force, demographic research and back office ad operations team, implemented our speech transcription system for increased advertising targetability, all the while seeing a dramatic increase in the number of download requests. We landed our first major advertiser and delivered millions of ads for them in the fourth quarter as well. These things took time to set up properly, but I believe we are now effectively positioned to monetize podcasts for our publishers and the substantial growth in podcast downloads and audience numbers show that we are growing faster than even our most aggressive internal projections. I believe this one billion download milestone will put us on the radar of major media companies and allow us to do substantially larger deals in the future.”
Wizzard’s new innovative ad insertion technology allows for advertisements to be seamlessly inserted at commercial breaks inside an audio and video podcast episode which management believes advertisers find more compelling than traditional pre-roll and post-roll advertising placements.
“The rapid growth we experienced in the final quarter of 2007 can be attributed not only to the increased consumption of podcasts, but also to the lengthy list of podcasters who have signed up with Wizzard Media to take advantage of the financial opportunities we offer,” said Jim Else, VP of Sales, Wizzard Media. “With the exciting new technology advancements we will be launching in the coming months, combined with the impressive media network we have created, we expect even more leading advertisers and brands to look towards Wizzard to reach their target audience.”
More and more, advertisers are making podcasts part of their advertising initiatives. According to a fall 2007 survey conducted by Advertiser Perceptions, 30% of advertisers and agency media executives polled have included podcasts as part of their advertising plans for the next six months, up 6% from their spring 2007 survey.
About Wizzard Media:
Wizzard Media is the industry's leading podcast hosting network. Podcasts are a means for independent and professional content creators to publish audio and video shows for the world to enjoy over the Internet or on mp3 players, such as the Apple iPod and the Microsoft Zune. Podcasting is a relatively new phenomenon, but Wizzard Media collectively broadcasts millions of podcast downloads per month through media aggregators like Apple's iTunes, Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace and other podcast aggregators. For more information, please visit www.wizzard.tv. Wizzard Media is a division of Wizzard Software, a leader in speech technology development.
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