This is the Download from Sounds Profitable, your daily source for the essential news of the business of podcasting. Brought to you by Spreaker from IHART. I'm Tom Webster. Here's what you need to know for today, Tuesday, April 16. First, we have a correction. A contrary to our reporting yesterday, Adam Sachs is not leaving his position at Sirius XM or Team Cocoa. The podcast and website version of the Download have been altered to reflect this, and we apologize for the mistake.
In other news, the IAB PWC Internet Advertising Revenue Report for this year has dropped, and it has some good news about audio. B2B and Internet Advertising have seen some of the most positive revenue growth since 2022, with audio which encompasses music, radio, and podcasts, seeing a 4.1% increase in revenue compared to last year's edition of the same report. The IAB's podcast advertising revenue report will be released during the podcast up front on May 9.
From ad news, the merit within the complexity of ARN's bid for SCA, Investment Bank Morgan Stanley weighs in on ARN, that's in Australia, and Private Equity firm Anchorage Capital Partners' proposal to acquire Broadcaster SCA, Southern Cross Asteria. If the proposal is approved, Morgan Stanley expects ARN's talent and content, including podcasts, to be moved into Listener, which is their app, creating a single audio streaming platform potentially ending the IAB.
Not all aspects of the proposed deal are public information, still the bank believes a larger version of Listener, with more ad inventory, would be better positioned to grow, armed with a better tech stack, and more first-party data. In Digit A, WTF is the American Privacy Rights Act.
This week, Digit A's WTF, explainer series, CACL's APRA, proposed bill that would limit the amount of data companies can collect on people, while giving users the ability to manage, correct, and export their own data. Effectively, an American version of Europe's GDPR General Data Protection Regulation, which currently has bipartisan support. Given that support, it's likely the Act won't disappear depending on how this November's election cycle turns out.
APRA has yet to be formally submitted to Congress for review, so in all likelihood, the ad industry has a few months to figure out compliance strategies and adjust to a future with tighter regulation. And as you can tell, the police are in the background, and they're going to get.
After the rest of the news, Max Cutler, who formally oversaw Spotify's creator partnerships has announced his new media company, Pave Studios, the Peabody Awards and Center for Media and Social Impact have launched, we disrupt this broadcast, a PRX Distributed Podcast, interviewing TV creatives, shaping entertainment with disruptive new narratives and approaches, such as Kintobronson and Damon Lindelog.
Ashley Carmen covers the curious trend of advertisements in which an influencer films the video, so it looks like a clip of an authoritative figure being interviewed on a non-existent video podcast. Conan O'Brien reflects on his career and how podcasting allows him more FaceTime with guests and more opportunities for guests who have nothing to promote. And NBC announces this was us. And this is us rewatch podcast featuring actors from the show.
This is us ended in 2022, making this one of the quickest official TV rewatch podcast they use after a show's finale. And finally today we have a data snapshot over on the web version of today's issue of the download.
A lot is said about podcasts with wide reaching audiences that cover a big portion of podcasting, but today we look at the top five shows for exclusive listeners, the top five podcasts within the top five hundred covered by Edison research, with audiences who listen to nothing else. At least, podcasts wise. Be sure to check out the links to every article mentioned right in your podcast listening app or at SoundsProfitable.com where you can also subscribe to the newsletter version.
The download is written and produced by Brian Barletta, Gavin Gattas and me, Tom Webster. This episode is recorded using the mono for SoundsProfitable. I'm Tom Webster. Download us again tomorrow.