SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Stitcher, the mobile leader in on-demand news, entertainment, sports and talk radio, today announced that the Stitcher Radio app has been downloaded more than 12 million times and its content catalog has doubled in the past year, now offering more than 20,000 on-demand podcasts and radio shows.
"When we started Stitcher, we wanted to make podcasts more accessible to all consumers and we're well on our way to achieving our goal," said Noah Shanok, co-founder and CEO of Stitcher. "It's extremely gratifying for us to see strong growth in both the listening audience and on the content creation side."
"We've seen tremendous growth in podcasting in the last several years and our data indicates that Stitcher in particular has benefited,” said Rob Walch, VP Podcaster Relations at Libysn, the leading podcast hosting platform. “From our metrics, Stitcher appears to be the largest platform for listening on Android and second largest on iOS behind only Apple."
Stitcher’s growth has translated into content partner and revenue growth as well. The company said its top 100 programs have seen, on average, a 15x increase in audience and nearly 10x increase in listening time in the past two years. More broadly, podcasts are seeing strong growth across all listening platforms.
"Our podcast has generated more than 2.5 million downloads while growing at a rate of 450,000 unique downloads per month, all within 1 year of our launch,” said John Lee Dumas, creator of the Entrepreneur on Fire podcast. “This growth has allowed us to create multiple revenue streams and generate over $50,000 in monthly revenue."
Despite having just recently made its first sales hire, Stitcher’s revenue has also grown at 75 percent year-over-year since 2011. “We are still in the early stages of an advertising transition from terrestrial to internet radio and we’re excited about the leadership position we are in. We expect revenue growth to accelerate significantly this year as we ramp up our sales team,” said Shanok.
Stitcher’s ability to deliver highly targeted, interactive and trackable audio ads based on specific interests is a major differentiator versus traditional radio and a key reason for its early success. Another key is listener loyalty; 90 percent of daily listeners are returning listeners, whom advertisers can consequently reach multiple times. With 75 percent of Stitcher’s listeners working as professionals, more than 50 percent reporting a graduate degree, and an average annual income of more than $100,000, it’s also an extremely attractive audience for advertisers. This highly engaged audience has been the driver of the company’s revenues since launching its ad network and paid options earlier this year. Stitcher says it sees a 90 percent listening completion rate on its audio ads.
This audience growth is also bearing fruit for its content partners. Stitcher notes that payouts for qualified partners have doubled during the past year and the number of partners in its revenue program has tripled during the last 12 months.
About Stitcher
Stitcher delivers personalized audio programming on demand, directly to your mobile device. Stream the latest in news, sports, talk, and entertainment anywhere without the need to synchronize content or depend on traditional radio programing. Stitcher is the easiest way to discover the best of over 20,000+ shows and live stations, with customized recommendations based on your listening activity. Stitcher is integrated with Mazda, Ford, GM, Mini and BMW vehicles and has been downloaded over 12 million times. Stitcher is available for iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle and Nook devices in the Apple and Google Play stores or at www.Stitcher.com.
