PITTSBURGH--()--Wizzard Media (NYSE Amex: WZE), the world’s largest podcasting network, today announced the availability of In App Purchasing for its Podcast App in the iTunes App store. The updated App was recently approved by Apple and is available for Wizzard’s podcast companion App publishers immediately.
“While In App Purchasing won’t necessarily work for all Apps, we believe it has huge potential for the rich, episodic content of our podcast Apps”
With an average podcast App sale price of $1.99, Wizzard’s top App publishers have converted approximately 24% of their audience from free, to paid users. Now, with In App Purchasing capabilities, podcast publishers can offer their paid audience additional features and content, charging a one-time fee or a reoccurring subscription price. This new feature can substantially increase the amount of revenue generated per audience member. With the audience conversion rates currently being achieved, the Company believes it can substantially increase its per audience member revenue with this new monetization feature.
Wizzard recently announced 2009 network numbers of over 12,000 podcasts downloaded 1.4 billion times by over 18 million unique monthly audience members, approximately 50 million unique annual audience members. Until recently, Wizzard’s only means to derive revenues was through podcast publishing services as well as advertising sales.
With the launch of the iPhone App store in iTunes®, Wizzard created a unique iPhone App that can be quickly customized for each podcast and allows podcast publishers to generate a new, multi-faceted revenue stream by marketing their own iPhone App directly to their audience. Wizzard shares in this revenue with the podcast publisher. Wizzard believes that unlike most of the 140,000 Apps in the App Store, podcasters have a distinct advantage in successfully marketing their App due to the fact that they have already built a substantial audience for their podcast show through iTunes.
“Now, podcasting becomes a platform that converts audiences to revenue, accelerated by the micropayment billing process that Apple has created with the App store. We believe this new process is the future model for how digital media will be published, audiences grown and revenues derived,” says Chris Spencer, Wizzard Media CEO. “Never before has there been a monetization method like this for podcast producers because the technology to simplistically charge for content was not available. After assembling a massive network of podcasts over the last three years, Wizzard believes its podcast App is the much anticipated positive catalyst for both revenue acceleration as well as its position in the surging mobile media landscape rapidly taking shape.”
Wizzard Media generates revenues three ways: 1) charging for publishing services such as podcast hosting, distribution and audience statistics; 2) podcast advertising sales; 3) podcast App, content sales and subscriptions. As recently as last week the Company added advertising capabilities to its podcast App to compliment its current in-content advertising products. Today they are adding the ability to sell podcast episodes and subscriptions for premium content directly through their podcast App via iTunes.
“We know there is strong demand for the podcasts we distribute seeing downloads grow from 400 million to 1.4 billion in the last three years and monthly audiences grow from 4 million to over 18 million,” says Laurie Sims, President of Wizzard Media.
“While In App Purchasing won’t necessarily work for all Apps, we believe it has huge potential for the rich, episodic content of our podcast Apps,” says Dave Mansueto, co-founder Wizzard Media. “It gives our podcasters the opportunity to offer their audience inexpensive subscription packages for new and exclusive content. With over 12,000 content creators and tens of thousands of new episodes being added to the Wizzard Network quarterly, we believe we have a model here that can be recreated over and over. This is a new opportunity for our producers to extend the reach of their content and make money doing so."
Analysts project the App market to be a $1.0 billion market today, headed for $4.0 billion by 2012. Having witnessed significant growth during the most recent holiday season and the recent launch of the iPhone in China, Wizzard believes the number of people using iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches to consume podcasts and interact with Apps will continue to grow well beyond the current 70 million user-base.
Click here to learn more about Wizzard’s podcast App for the iPhone
Click here to learn more about Apple’s In App Purchasing technology
About Wizzard Media:
Wizzard Media provides podcast publishers with distribution and monetization services. Our clients include Microsoft, National Geographic, Harvard Business Review, Usher, NPR and more than 12,000 others who use Wizzard Media products to measure their podcast audience, deliver popular audio and video entertainment and monetize their content through advertising and App sales. In 2009, the Wizzard Media Network received over 1.4 billion podcast requests from approximately 50 million people worldwide through iPods, iPhones, iTunes, Zune and many other devices and destinations. We are part of a publicly held, Pittsburgh based company with thousands of shareholders and a world-class team. Visit us on the web at www.wizzardsoftware.com/media, email us at contact@wizzard.tv.
Legal Notice
Legal Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: "Forward-looking Statements" as defined in the Private Securities litigation Reform Act of 1995 may be included in this news release. These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance. These statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future results or events. We disclaim any intention or obligation to revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. There are important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to risks associated with changes in general economic and business conditions, actions of our competitors, the extent to which we are able to develop new services and markets for our services, the time and expense involved in such development activities, the level of demand and market acceptance of our services, changes in our business strategies and acts of terror against the United States.
iPod, iPod Touch, iPad, iPhone and iTunes are all registered marks or trade names of Apple, Inc.
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