PwC: global podcast ad revenue to pass $1B by the end of 2019 and hit $1.4B by 2023, in part due to the advent of programmatic ads in podcasts
Podcast advertising revenue is expected to pass $1 billion by the end of 2019, according to figures from PwC's Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2019-2023. Tweets: @mediapodawards Tweets: @mediapodawards : Between now and 2023, podcast advertising is expected to grow 23.1% to hit $1.4 billion, which is double the current global figure of $0.7 billion https://whatsnewinpublishing.com/ ...
Context & Ripple Effects
PwC's Global Entertainment & Media Outlook puts a global number on a market that until now has been tracked mostly through US figures: US advertisers spent $479.1M on podcast ads in 2018, up 53% year over year, and PwC now projects worldwide revenue crossing $1B by end-2019 and reaching $1.4B by 2023, with programmatic buying named as a key accelerant.
The forecast lands on an already fast-compounding curve — spending grew ~86% in 2017 to ~$314M — and later reporting would show it was conservative: US podcast ad revenue alone hit $1.45B in 2021, up 72% YoY, blowing past what PwC projected for the entire world two years earlier.
First-order effects
- Podcast publishers and networks gain a larger addressable ad pool, and programmatic availability lets advertisers buy podcast inventory without negotiated host-read deals, widening the buyer base beyond direct-response brands.
Second-order effects
- As programmatic scales inventory supply, the price pressure Audio Insurgent flagged in 2018 intensifies, pushing sellers toward dynamic ad insertion and better measurement to defend rates; brand-awareness budgets — already 35.7% of 2017 spend per the Wall Street Journal — become the growth segment to win.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, podcasting consolidates around networks that own ad-tech stacks and audience scale, while the recurring undershoot of official forecasts — global $1.4B by 2023 versus $1.45B in the US alone by 2021 — signals analysts systematically underpricing audio's shift into mainstream media budgets.
The trend: Podcast advertising is maturing from host-read direct response into a programmatic, measurably priced channel whose growth keeps outrunning even bullish institutional forecasts.