Wizzard Media Sees Continued Growth in Podcasting Apps and 2011 Network StatsWizzard Media WZE -6.98% , the world’s leading podcasting network, today announced it is seeing continued growth of its network with the expansion of App offerings across leading markets and mobile devices. In addition, Wizzard’s premier podcast distribution and monetization platform, Libsyn.com, has seen growth in overall network statistics in 2011 and into 2012.Wizzard Media expanded support for podcast apps with over 2,800 podcast apps submitted and approved during 2011. In the fourth quarter alone podcast apps were added based on growing Android popularity and continued demand for iOS in preparation for the holiday season:– 100 new apps were added with support for the Amazon Kindle Fire– over 400 new apps for the iTunes App Store– all iOS Apps were upgraded for Apple iPad compatibility– 250 apps were submitted to the Verizon Wireless App Store (V CAST)– business-related apps in Cisco’s AppHQ for Android based Cius tablet increased to almost 50According to The Street and data provided by analytics firm Flurry, Christmas Day 2011 was by far the biggest day for app downloads and mobile device activations in history. Flurry estimates that there were 242 million app downloads on Christmas Day. The company also observed that global app downloads averaged approximately 108 million per day for the first 20 days of the month of December. Christmas Day downloads doubled the current average and were up from only 85 million on Christmas 2010. Additionally, 6.8 million mobile devices were activated on Christmas Day versus 1.5 million activated each during the first three weeks of December 2011.In the fourth quarter of 2011, the Wizzard Media network averaged over 20 million unique audience members per month. Wizzard Media reached another milestone with an all time high for unique audience count in December 2011. Additionally, substantial growth in download requests continued with the fourth quarter numbers topping October’s all time high. And while Wizzard stopped publishing download request numbers in 2010 due to a change in algorithmic reporting metrics, download requests for 2011 would have clearly exceeded 2010’s total of 1.64 billion.Wizzard reported ongoing increases in new podcast client account sign-ups and corresponding revenues throughout 2011 with a focus on higher margined monthly accounts. The fourth quarter brought additional all-time highs for average weekly account sign-ups and incremental revenue. That trend continues in 2012 with the first week of the new-year beating out even the best week of 2011 for new account growth and incremental revenue.”We are thrilled by the upward trends we continue to see and are confident that the hard work of our team and our podcast producers in 2011 will continue to expand the entire podcast ecosystem,” said Laurie Sims, President of
Wizzard Media. “Our Q4 results are encouraging with all time highs in our network statistics and greater distribution for our producers with broad support across various app marketplaces and mobile devices. With the popularity of the Kindle Fire and loyalty of iOS users, we are excited about prospects for 2012 expansion.”The company has been focused on its stated plan of increasing reoccurring revenues by attracting new podcast hosting and App customers. Additionally, marketing and social media efforts to support hosting and audience growth have demonstrated success in 2011 and will be further leveraged in 2012. Wizzard’s full subscription service is expected to launch in the first part of 2012.
