Wizzard Software, the parent company of Liberated Syndication and several podcast hosting services, announced today that revenues for the fourth quarter of 2007 were $1,540,992, a 108% increase over revenues of $739,551 in the fourth quarter of 2006.
For the full year of 2007, the Company recorded revenues of $5,163,491, a 75% increase of $2,195,967 from revenues of $2,943,578 in 2006. Wizzard posted a gross profit of $1,562,703, a 47% increase versus a gross profit of $1,064,115 in the full year 2006.
The company noted several podcasting-related accomplishments in its announcement:
Acquisition of Podcast Company Liberated Syndication (Libsyn) 3/19/07
Completed Raise of $7,500,000 for its Podcasting Business 7/9/07
Adds Nielsen//NetRatings’ Site Census to Advertising System 9/12/07
Announces Largest Ever Industry Ad Campaign 11/14/07
Ends Year with Approximately 10,000 Podcast Publishers 12/31/07
1 Billion Download Requests in 2007 12/31/07
In 2007, Wizzard Media surpassed download request forecasts with one billion podcast download requests achieved, surpassing the 450 million download requests for 2006.
“Podcasting is becoming a necessary audience expansion tool for content publishers and brand advertisers seeking cost effective, high return outlets to capture the migration of audiences from traditional media outlets to the internet,” says Chris Spencer, Wizzard CEO. “We are seeing an increase in advertiser understanding of the high quality, subscription and episodic benefits of podcasting versus other internet video offerings. We believe that our ambitious undertaking of targeting similar audiences through interesting, engaging podcast micro-communities is a very compelling advertising opportunity and we expect advertising revenues to grow substantially in 2008.”
There’s been a lot of discussion lately in the world of new media about the future of podcasting - people wondering what the current state of podcasting is and where it’s going.
eMarketer forecasts that the audience for podcast consumption will double in the next two years, but even that relatively rosy forecast is disappointing to some.
We recently talked to Chris Spencer, CEO of podcasting hosting mega-network Wizzard Media, to get his perspective on podcasting and its future.
In the last year, Wizzard has acquired podcast hosting services Switchpod, Libsyn, and Blast Podcast. Wizzard made headlines in January when it announced that it had delivered over one billion podcast downloads in 2007. Earlier this week, Wizzard announced that it was now trading on the American Stock Exchange (”AMEX”) under the ticker symbol “WZE.”
In our interview, Chris shared his thoughts on what a billion podcast downloads per year means, what he expects that number to be in 2008, and his predictions on what will happen with podcast advertising.
Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: Tell me about this whole billion downloads number. What does that mean for you in particular, and for downloadable media industry in general?
Chris Spencer: It’s a big number, isn’t it?
For us in particular, it means our servers are running well. Let’s face it: some people wonder whether this accomplishment gets credited to Wizzard, or to our content creators. We feel strongly that it’s 95% our content creators - they create the quality content, and they go out and market their show, and grow their audience. We get 5% credit for being proficient and productive enough to offer a stable inexpensive hosting solution, and that takes a lot of work.
But it comes down to the podcast producers. It’s a big accomplishment for the podcasters we host. It’s a big enough milestone for them and for us, and we publicized it so much.
In reality, what we’re trying to do is raise awareness for podcasting, specifically with the advertisers and the sponsors. It’s a number that’s going to attract a lot of the bigger brands that didn’t realize how big the potential here is. If there’s going to be big audience for podcasts, then that’s going to draw advertisers. That’s why we publicize it, not just for us, but for the whole industry.
Let’s look at the whole podcast industry: Right now, the industry is too small to worry if it’s us, or PodShow, or Podomatic. Right now it’s all about getting the advertisers and sponsors to know more about and be more interested in podcasting. Period.
I could talk about this for hours: it comes down to trying to demonstrate that this is a viable alternative to reach target audiences. More importantly, it is a product that people are consuming, and they’re loving it. (more…)
Podcast hosting network Wizzard Media announced this morning that its common shares are set to begin trading today on the American Stock Exchange (”AMEX”) under the ticker symbol “WZE.” Previously, the company traded as “WIZD” on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board.
Wizzard is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with offices in New York, Los Angeles, and Detroit, and was in the headlines last month for its disclosure that it had served up one billion podcast downloads in 2007. Additionally, Wizzard recently completed a major podcast advertising campaign for the U.S. Navy, across 28 of the podcast shows it hosts on its network.
Wordpress creator Matt Mullenweg has announced that WordPress.com, a free blog hosting service, has updated the amount of space it allocates to each user to 3 gigabytes:
Much of the work we do at Automattic is behind the scenes, infrastructure you’ll (hopefully) never notice or see, but we’re always thinking about how the improvements we make to the foundation of the site will allow us to build more interesting things on top of it.
Today, one of those developments comes to fruition — everyone’s free upload space has been increased 60x from 50mb to 3,000mb. To get the same amount of space at our nearest competitor, Typepad, you’d pay at least $300 a year. Blogger only gives you 1GB. We’re doing the same thing for free.
Most typical bloggers will never need anywhere 3 gigabytes of space - so there’s really only one way to read this move: Mullenweg wants you to be a podcaster on Wordpress.com.
Here’s his rationale for the change:
Our hope is that much in the same way Gmail transformed the way people think about email, we’ll give people the freedom to blog rich media without having to worry about how many kilobytes are left in their upload space.
This is an interesting move by Mullenweg. It will challenge other podcast hosts to deliver more. It will grow the number of Wordpress.com users making rich media files available as podcasts, whether or not the users consider themselves podcasters.
Unfortunately, Mullenweg’s “freedom to blog rich media” doesn’t currently include video:
You still need a space upgrade to upload certain file types, like movies, and we’re also increasing the limits of the paid upgrades, so if you bought a 1GB upgrade before it now adds 5GB for no additional charge.
Today’s big podcasting news is that Wizzard Media announced their download totals for 2007, an amazing one billion podcast files downloaded. To put that large number into some context, we talked with Rob Walch, Wizzard’s Vice President of Podcaster Relations (and creator/host of the popular Podcast411).
First off, congratulations - this is pretty stunning news. What do you think this billion-download figure means, for Wizzard Media in particular, and for the wider downloadable media industry in general?
To my knowledge we are the first ones to hit a billion in a calendar year in the Podcasting space (wearing my 411 hat). I am sure there will be others — if not in 2008 then certainly in 2009.
But the bigger news for podcasting is that someone has done it. I believe that hitting that the 1 billion mark is the type of benchmark that big ad agencies will take notice of. Now they’ll understand that podcasting is for real — and that is good for everyone.
So, when we were at the Portable and New Media Expo this fall, some guys were talking gloom and doom — that podcasting was essentially dead. Your news seems to belie that prediction.
There is a lot of misguided talk about podcasting being dead. We just are not seeing it. We continue to see growth in the numbers each month. To us, at least, podcasting keeps growing.
What do you think this bodes for the coming year?
We hope that 2008 will be the year that advertisers stop thinking of podcasting as an experiment, and start thinking of it as a necessity for every campaign.
ReadWriteWeb’s Marshall Kirkpatrickreports that Wizzard Media, the owners of the Libsyn, Switchpod and Blast Podcast networks, will announce tomorrow that it passed the 1 billion download mark in 2007.
It’s an impressive number, one that’s sure to generate a lot of buzz for both Wizzard and podcasting.
It’s been an interesting ride for Wizzard. Here are some of the company’s podcasting milestones:
In September of 2006, we reported that Wizzard had acquired podcast hosting service providers Switchpod.com and Blast Podcast.
In October 2006, Wizzard announced that it was buying Libsyn and that it had secured $1,750,000 investments.
In early 2007, Wizzard announced its revenues for 2006. The company recorded record revenues of $2,943,578, thanks in part to (we’re not making this up!) “Rex” - the talking pill bottle.
In May of 2007, we reported that Wizzard was serving up over 70,000,000 podcast episodes per month.
In September 2007, they announced a partnership with Nielsen/NetRatings to offer certified download data. According to Wizzard, certified download numbers will bring “a new level of accountability to podcast ad sales.”
1-billion podcast served is an interesting milestone for Wizzard. What’s really interesting, though, is that Wizzard has demonstrated that it can execute on podcasting’s potential.
When we talked with Rocketboom’s Andrew Baron recently, he cited the idea of creating a spectacle as one of the ways to create great viral video.
“Videos of spectacle translate on the net,” notes Baron, “An idea that is very original and unique, while extreme, can be videotaped and put up on YouTube to get a lot of hits pretty easily.”
As an example, Baron mentioned Improv Anywhere, a NYC flash mob improv troupe that has staged over 70 missions, “creating scenes of chaos and joy in public places.”
“We’re out to prove that a prank doesn’t have to involve humiliation or embarrassment,” says Improv Anywhere creator Charlie Todd, “it can simply be about making someone laugh, smile, or stop to notice the world around them.”
Improv Anywhere documents their events, and the videos routinely get tens of thousand, hundreds of thousands and even millions of views at YouTube.
Here’s one of their recent spectacles , 101 Shirtless Men At Abercrombie & Fitch:
Heavyweight podcast hosting provider Wizzard Software has announced changes to the Company’s Board of Directors, as part of a bid to get listed on the American Stock Exchange.
The Board accepted the resignations of Armen Geronian and Gordon Berry, effective October 3, 2007. Geronian and Berry resigned for the sole purpose of facilitating the creation of a Board of Directors consisting of a majority of independent directors, allowing Wizzard to become compliant with the mandates set forth by the American Stock Exchange. Geronian will continue to serve as Wizzard’s Chief Technology Officer and Berry will continue to oversee the Company’s healthcare operations.
The Board unanimously appointed three new independent board members to Wizzard’s Board of Directors, effective October 3, 2007:
Greg Smith, a producer with over 10 years of experience in television;
Douglas Polinsky, President of Great North Capital Corp., a Minnesota-based financial services company; and
Denis Yevstifeyev, a CPA who currently serves as a Sr. Financial Reporting Analyst for American Eagle Outfitters.
Web hosting provider Go Daddy has introduced a new service, Quick Blogcast, that rolls its blogging and podcasting applications into one tool.
“Quick Blogcast allows people to tell their own stories with audio, video, photos and text over the Internet,” said Warren Adelman, President and CEO of Go Daddy. “It’s a great way to let people around the corner or around the world know what you or your business are doing.”
Quick Blogcast features:
More than 50 different design templates.
Blog remotely from your mobile phone or PDA.
Incorporate content from Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds.
Wizzard Software, the parent company of Liberated Syndication and several podcast hosting services, announced today that revenues for the fourth quarter of 2007 were $1,540,992, a 108% increase over revenues of $739,551 in the fourth quarter of 2006.
ReadWriteWeb’s Marshall Kirkpatrick 
In early 2007, Wizzard announced its revenues for 2006. The company recorded 
