Audioboom slumps to $10.6m loss on departure of hit true crime podcast
Audioboom drops to $10.6 million loss as popular True Crime podcast exits
- Audioboom reported an operating loss of $10.6 million for the first six months of 2023
- The American true crime show Morbid left for rival Wondery in May last year
- Despite a loss, shares of Audioboom Group soared on Wednesday
Audioboom Group fell to a six-month loss after losing its largest podcast and a weakening advertising market.
The podcast distributor reported an operating loss of $10.6 million (£8.2 million) for the first six months of 2023, compared to an underlying profit of $629,000 last year.
It incurred exceptional charges of $8.9 million related to an “onerous contract,” which was impacted by lower-than-expected advertising rates and is expected to report a net loss when it closes in July 2025.
Listen carefully: Average monthly downloads of Audioboom during the second quarter increased slightly to 125.9 million, while reaching a record 135.2 million in May
Total revenues fell by more than $9 million to $31.8 million, mainly due to the departure of American true crime show Morbid – one of the world’s most popular podcasts – to rival Wondery in May 2022.
Morbid was downloaded 30 million times a month before leaving Audioboom and was responsible for about a fifth of the company’s sales.
Still, the group’s average monthly downloads rose slightly to 125.9 million in the second quarter, up from a record 135.2 million in May thanks to recent new signings and contract renewals.
Audioboom signed a multi-year extended deal with Formula 1 to produce, distribute and monetize the racetrack’s official podcasts such as F1: Beyond the Grid and F1 Nation.
The company has also recently partnered with podcasts such as Real Ones with Jon Bernthal, The Tim Dillon Show, Once Upon A Crime, and the Networth & Chill financial program.
It expects a recovery in growth in the second half of this year, when the National Football League, the European football season and the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are expected to boost ad sales.
Stuart Last, chief executive of Audioboom, said: “Significant growth of our content network and the continued development and evolution of our revenue product offerings is key to our progress in 2023.
“Our strategy and model continue to work well, with the rapid expansion of our network and the refocusing of our advertising strategy poised us to emerge from the economic downturn in a strong position.”
Audioboom Group Shares rose 8.7 percent early Wednesday afternoon to 206.5 pence, supported by broad-based strength in London stock markets following weaker-than-expected inflationary pressures.
The stock has still shrunk by about 70 percent over the past 12 months.
Founded in 2009 and listed on the junior AIM market in London, the company has grown to become the fifth largest podcast publisher in the United States after Spotify and SiriusXM, according to recent figures from Edison Research.
It claims to have 38 million listeners, who tune in to shows ranging from No Such Thing as a Fish to The Spectator Magazine and Murder Mystery Make-Up podcasts.
Prominent investors include chairman Michael Tobin, real estate mogul Nick Candy and Robert Bonnier, the head of Dutch social media network Aaqua, which attempted to buy Audioboom last year.
Candy and Bonnier are currently embroiled in a legal dispute with each other, with the former claiming he was tricked into trading a stake in Audioboom for shares in Aaqua, something Bonnier has denied.