Audioboom slumps to $10.6m loss on departure of hit true crime podcast

Audioboom Group slumped to a half-year loss after losing its biggest podcast and suffering a softening advertising market.

The podcast distributor reported a $10.6million (£8.2million) operating loss for the first six months of 2023, compared to a $629,000 underlying profit the previous year.

It incurred an exceptional $8.9million cost related to an ‘onerous contract’, which was impacted by weaker-than-forecast ad rates and is forecast to report a net loss when it concludes in July 2025. 

Listening closely: Audioboom’s average monthly downloads during the second quarter tipped up slightly to 125.9 million, while they hit a record 135.2 million in May

Total revenue declined by over $9million to $31.8million, primarily due to American true crime show Morbid – one of the world’s most popular podcasts – departing to rival Wondery in May 2022.

Morbid was being downloaded 30 million times per month before it left Audioboom and was responsible for around a fifth of the firm’s turnover.

Yet the group’s average monthly downloads during the second quarter still tipped up slightly to 125.9 million, while they hit a record 135.2 million in May thanks to recent new signings and contract renewals.

Audioboom secured a multi-year extended deal with Formula One to produce, distribute and monetise the racing circuit’s official podcasts, such as F1: Beyond the Grid and F1 Nation.

The company also recently began partnerships with podcasts like Real Ones with Jon Bernthal, The Tim Dillon Show, Once Upon A Crime and finance-related programme Networth & Chill.

It anticipates rebounding to growth in the second half of this year when the National Football League, European football season, and the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are expected to boost advertising sales. 

Stuart Last, chief executive of Audioboom, said: ‘Significant growth of our content network and the continued development and evolution of our revenue product offering is key to our progress in 2023. 

‘Our strategy and model continue to work well, with the fast expansion of our network and the refocusing of our advertising strategy setting us up to emerge from the economic downturn in a position of strength.’

Audioboom Group shares soared by 8.7 per cent to 206.5p on early Wednesday afternoon, buoyed by broad strength in London’s equity markets after a softer-than-expected inflation print. 

The share have still contracted by around 70 per cent in the past 12 months. 

Founded in 2009 and listed on London’s junior AIM market, the firm has grown to be the fifth-largest podcast publisher in the United States, behind the likes of 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’s podcasts and Murder Mystery Make-Up.

Prominent investors include its chairman Michael Tobin, property tycoon Nick Candy and Robert Bonnier, the head of Dutch social media network Aaqua, which tried to buy Audioboom last year.

Candy and Bonnier are currently embroiled in a legal dispute with each other, with the former alleging he was misled into swapping a stake in Audioboom for shares in Aaqua, something that Bonnier has denied.