'Golden age of podcasts' drives 500% surge in digital audio revenue

Digital audio revenues increased 500% to £4.2m in Q1 2022 year-on-year, latest figures show.

According to the latest Digital Publishers’ Revenue Index (DPRI) from the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) and Deloitte, multiplatform revenue was up 21.7% compared to Q1 2021 while mobile devices and desktop revenues decreased 16.1% and 35.2% respectively.

Subscription revenue experienced year-on-year growth of 14.7% to £38.2m in the first three months of this year.

Richard Reeves, managing director at AOP, said: “We’ve seen revenue for digital audio grow steadily over the last few quarters, driven in part by what’s being deemed the ‘golden age of podcasts’.”

He added: “The 500% revenue growth reported for this channel in Q1 2022 demonstrates that publishers are now successfully monetising this type of content. It’s also interesting to see the drop in revenue for mobile and desktop-only devices, as this indicates the continued shift towards multi channel campaigns.”

Display advertising remained the largest category for digital publishers with revenues growing 23.9% to £66.4m.

B2B and B2C publisher revenue increased on a 12-month rolling basis and as a year-on-year change. B2B increased 8.7% to £52.7m from March 2021 to March 2022, while B2C revenue was up 24.3% over the same period.

Digital revenue grew 18% to £610.3m on a 12-month moving annual total basis and total digital publishing revenue was £151.6m.

Half of the survey’s respondents had experienced positive growth, with 83% listing advertising revenue growth as a high priority for their businesses over the next year.

All respondents believed new products would also be a key focus but cost reduction targets remained front of mind.

The Q1 2022 DPRI report is based on a survey of 12 UK digital publishers, eight B2C and four B2B publishers.