This is the download from Sounds Profitable, the most important news for this week and why it matters to people in the business of podcasting, I'm Gavin Gattis. And I'm Shriashartman. This week, what CBS and the 48-hours podcast can teach about True Crime, notable new podcasting acquisitions, podcasting's journalistic potential, Signal Hill Insights Study of a Host Red and Announcer Red Hybrid, and Jen Alphas getting into sports. Let's get started.
Last Wednesday from Natalie Korak at The Wrap, the CBS True Crime series 48-Hours, a main stay of the field that has been on air since 1988, as decades worth of backlog to work with when generating new content, as well as the ability to revisit old stories with new information.
A quote from the article, quote, The franchise is seeing growth not just on broadcast, but on its expanded offerings, including podcasts, streaming, and social media content, with the production team led by executive producer Judy TaiGard, constantly finding ways to reach new audiences for True Crime reporting. Similar to NBC's Dateline podcasting debut, 48-Hours has rocketed up the True Crime charts by adapting episodes of the original show into audio.
The podcast has been bolstered by promotion on the parent version of the program, still airing on broadcast TV, as well as in traditional advertising venues. The success of Legacy True Crime shows making the jump to podcasting further demonstrates how powerful a podcast can be for distributing content, while also showing how quickly a podcast can grow if advertised in the wide world outside podcasting, a move that both builds the podcast reach and brings new people into the medium overall.
After a day from Bloomberg's Ashley Carmen, a recent episode of the Breakfast Club served as an example of how podcasts can be an effective tool for hard-hitting journalism. On March 29, the long-running morning show interviewed embroiled New York City Mayor, Eric Adams, known for his tendency to avoid complicated conversations with journalists. Seizing the opportunity, the Breakfast Club brought in a public defender at the Legal Aid Society to run the interview.
What followed was a heated conversation that racked up over 500,000 views on YouTube since publication, with clips also finding traction on platforms like TikTok. While successful, it's worth noting that the Breakfast Club specifically benefits from being a live radio show and ears of brand building.
It would be far more difficult for an interview guest to weather the negative fear of walking out of a radio station live on air than it would be to simply leave a podcast studio minutes into a recording session. If journalistic podcasts are to thrive outside of asking pre-approved stock wall questions, those productions will need the financial backing of brands to keep the show going even if a big name interview falls apart.
Podcasters need financial security to be able to ask challenging questions that might turn a 15 minute interview into a 5 minute one. Reported this Monday in Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and The Verge, Night Talent Management which represents high-profile YouTubers and Twitch streamers like Mr. Beast and Kai Sennott have required the Roost Podcast Network formerly of Warner Brothers discoveries Rooster Teeth.
While the specifics of the deal have not been disclosed, Night has said the majority of the network's 47 shows and team will remain, including the Roost Head AJ Feliciano. The Roost's portfolio of video-forward podcasting includes a stable of content creator-fronted shows such as the H3 podcast, this weekend with Theo Vaughn, and Philip DeFranco's A Conversation With.
Equate from Feliciano, The team at The Roost is excited to join Night, a forward-thinking company that has long understood the potential of creators. The future of podcasting sits at the heart of the creator economy, and this endeavor propels that vision. And quote, Night CEO Reed Dusher says the company is committed to maintaining the Roost's autonomy and integrity.
The acquisition creates a Rooster Teeth bond between the companies, as current night president Ezra Cooperstein was president of Rooster Teeth from 2018 to 2019. And for our second acquisition, on Monday, Deadlines Peter White covered the acquisition of Neon Humb, the company known for Jesse Tyler Ferguson's dinner on me, and the true crime franchise smoke screen, comes five years after Sony's strategic investment in the company.
As part of the acquisition, Neon Humb will continue to develop podcasts from Sony Music subscription. Neon Humb will continue to develop podcasts for Sony Music subscription channel The Binge. Company founder Jonathan Hirsch will become VP Global Podcast and Head of US Creative at Sony Music Global Podcast Division.
Steve Ackerman Head of Global Podcast at Sony Music says the move allows Sony to maximize Neon Humb's creative and productive input as they grow Sony's roster of original and client podcasts. This Tuesday from Signal Hill Insights, Paula Risman-Dowell, Gumball VP of creator partnerships Dane Cardio approached Signal Hill Insights with a hypothesis. A hostred podcast ad might remain effective if run on a different podcast.
This study run by Signal Hill Insights in collaboration with Gumball and hosting platform art 19 tested that hypothesis is using a stamps.com ad. 800 podcast listeners were played one of five different ad leads covering hostred, announced red, and the new hybrid talent red, all using the exact same copy. The survey used the ad on the talent podcast and a Jason show with a similar audience and a neutral show in a different genre.
The results found hostred performed the best with strong lift metrics for familiarity, affinity, and purchase intent. Talent red came second overall, but announcer red still performs strongly in top funnel metrics like familiarity and affinity across all three podcasts. As Tom Webster noted during his evolution keynote speech, studies like after these messages show hostred and announcer red need not be in competition. They each have unique strengths at different parts of the marketing funnel.
The full SSI study on talent reads is now available on their website. From E-Marketer Sarah Leboe, Morning Consult has published their second annual report on Generation Alpha, those born between the early 2010s and now and their media consumption habits, the survey interview parents of Gen Alpha kids. Key findings include children 10 and younger are already engaged with streaming and social media, including sports content.
60% of respondents have watched a pro sports event on TV and 47% have watched a college game on TV. 18% have already participated in fantasy leagues. Two of the fastest growing podcast genres are sports and kids and family. Given their momentum, there's potential synergy for a wave of kid-friendly sports podcasts. And they might have an audience outside Gen Alpha as well.
Sarah Paramount's Nickelodeon themed coverage of the Super Bowl, featuring live 3D animated characters and game commentary from in-character SpongeBob SquarePants voice actors. Both during the game and in the days that follow TikTok's off-flood of videos from adults who don't normally watch NFL games sharing their favorite moments from the Nickelodeon version of the Super Bowl. Making mainstream sports more accessible and fun for newer audiences seems like a slam dunk for podcasting.
Finally it's time for our quick hits. These are articles that didn't quite make the cut for today's episode, but are still worth including in-your-week and reading this week. How to in big-of-eye podcasting by Tom Webster. During his keynote speech at Evolution's by podcast movement, Tom highlights the importance of growing the space instead of getting hung up on things like what counts as a podcast.
Tom Ball's AI-powered campaign builder, a 10-minute deep dive into Gum Balls recently announced campaign builder tool which automatically filters for podcasts that fit advertiser criteria in the Gum Ball dashboard. Alternative Identity Provider ID5 nabs $20 million in series B funding by Allison Schiff. ID5 also recently partnered with Triton Digital and in a test run with ARM made 60% of non-addressable audience addressable.
Stephen Bartlett and X-A Cast Duo launched global podcast startup by Ella Cigar. Bartlett and telling media co-founders Georgie Holt and Cristiana Breton have launched Flight Studio, a video first podcast production company. Why daily podcast work and why they don't by Charlotte Henry? Daily news podcast easily incorporate themselves into listeners' routines and can stay on the pulse, or at least I hope we do. The main downside being advertiser reluctance to run ads on news content.
And that was the download brought to you by SoundsProffable. I know we went through today's stories fast so be sure to check out the links to every article mentioned right in your podcast listening app or at SoundsProffable.com. And thank you for sticking with us as we bring you the top stories you might have missed from this past week. I'm Gavin Gattis. And I'm Sharia Sharma, our producers are Brian Bartlett, Gavin Gattis and Tom Webster, special thanks to Squeaker for hosting the download.
And thanks to you for joining us. Robot? Download. And as always thank you.