Podcasts have proven to be the fastest growing sector of media consumption, enabling the digital migration of media brands. The latest PWC Media Outlook report forecasts that the South African podcast market will double to 19 million monthly listeners by 2024. This year, African Media Entertainment (AME) has joined the podcast wave by securing the South African rights for Wondery podcasts, the world’s largest independent podcast producer.
AME’s radio platforms include Algoa FM, OFM and Classic 1027; whilst the digital, publishing and marketing services include MediaHeads 360, Moneyweb, Mahareng, Digital Platforms, Central Media Group and sales house United Stations. Rivak Bunce, managing director of United Stations says, “We are excited about the opportunity to create a space where our advertisers can benefit from the incredible emotional engagement that is typical of the podcasting environment,” he says.
According to AME’s Chris Borain, advertisers will now be able to speak directly to their target audiences through United Stations’ collaboration with Wondery. “The strength of digital is that you can measure everything, which means tha your audio advertising can be targetted,” says Borain.
Thirty-one of Wondery’s shows have reached # 1 on Apple Podcasts, whilst being the only publisher to have simultaneously claimed the # 1 and # 2 ‘Top New Podcasts” slots on an annual Podtrac ranker. Dave Tiltmann, the chief executive officer of African Media Entertainment (AME), says “We have rights to monetise the Wondery content across all platforms in South Africa Covid sped up the migration to digital almost overnight. This expansion into audio consumption on demand comes at a critical point for the group as our core commercial radio business is extremely healthy.”
In addition to providing compelling advertising through their collaboration with Wondery, AME is utilising the strength of their audio experts by enabling media brands to produce their own podcasts, which will be distributed through the AME network.
“This space is incredibly exciting right now and we are grateful to be able to lead innovation with original podcasts, branded content, integrated ad placement and access to the world's most popular podcasts,” says Rivak Bunce. “We're getting into this, because we see an opportunity to innovate and offer our advertisers an opportunity to stand out from the crowd,” he adds.
The podcasts can be downloaded from the AME platforms, as well as your favourite Podcast app.
