Audioboom books first profit as podcast downloads grow
Podcast platform Audioboom has booked its first ever profit for the first quarter after cashing in on continued growth in on-demand audio.
The Aim-listed firm posted adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $30,000 (£22,000) in the first three months of the year, up from a $500,000 loss the previous year.
The maiden profit came as revenue grew 49 per cent to a record $9.5m.
Audioboom, which hosts and distributes podcasts including No Such Thing As A Fish and Sue Perkins: An Hour Or So With, has benefited from strong demand for the format.
Average global monthly downloads rose 37 per cent to 87.1m year on year, topping 91.6m in March.
The company has also bucked a wider trend in the advertising market, increasing its brand advertiser count by 12 per cent.
In addition to hosting podcasts, Audioboom expanded its range of original programming with the launch of Relax! with Colleen Ballinger and Erik Stocklin, which reached number one on the Apple US podcast chart.
It also released Dark Air with Terry Carnation, a show written by and starring Rainn Wilson from the US version of The Office.
The company, which is backed by property tycoon Nick Candy, said it expected full-year revenue to be well ahead of market expectations, having already signed 90 per cent of its forecast advertising bookings.
Shares in Audioboom were up 2.7 per cent in early trading.
Chief executive Stuart Last described the quarter as a “breakthrough period” for the company.
“Our record performance is driven by our content focused expansion strategy,” he said.
“New content partnerships and successful Audioboom Originals Network launches delivered strong growth in our global downloads key performance indicator, with more than 90m downloads in March. As a result, Audioboom became the fourth largest podcast publisher by number of average weekly users in the US on the Triton Digital ranker.”