PITTSBURGH - (Business Wire) Wizzard Media (NYSE Amex: WZE), the world’s largest podcasting network, today announced the launch of 24 new iPhone® Apps available for sale in the App store including Investors Business Daily Editorials and Alaska HDTV. The average price for the new Apps is $1.99. The newly launched Apps are iPhone companion Apps for popular podcasts on the Wizzard Media Network, offering audiences one-click access to the podcast directly on their iPhone or iPod Touch®, bonus content and new social communication features creating an unprecedented level of audience engagement.
Wizzard recently announced 2009 third quarter network numbers of 12,281 podcasts downloaded 332 million times in the quarter by over 18 million unique monthly audience members. Approximately 70% of the audience for podcasts subscribe through iTunes® from which users download podcasts for their iPhone and iPod®. Until recently, Wizzard’s only means to derive revenues was through podcast publishing services as well as advertising sales.
With the launch of the iPhone App store in iTunes, Wizzard created a unique iPhone App that can be quickly customized for each podcast and allows podcast publishers to generate a new revenue stream by marketing their own iPhone App directly to their audience. Wizzard shares in this revenue with the podcast publisher. Now, with Wizzard’s unique podcast companion App for the iPhone, participating podcasts can market their customized App to their audience and then drive future reoccurring episode and subscription sales through a process called in-App purchasing.
Analysts project the App market to be a $1.0 billion market today, headed for $4.0 billion by 2012. With the holiday season approaching and the recent launch of the iPhone in China, Wizzard’s Management believes the number of people using iPhones and iPod Touches to consume podcasts and interact with Apps will continue to grow well beyond the current 50 million user base.
Having launched the first podcast App only 95 days ago, Wizzard Media already has launched 70 iPhone Apps with 60 more Apps awaiting approval. Additionally, Wizzard has exclusively licensed 12 high quality, game type Apps and is currently marketing them through targeted podcasts across the Wizzard Media Network. Select podcast Apps on the Wizzard Network have already helped to convert approximately 15% of their audience from free, to paid, in the first 75 days since launch.
“We think our podcast companion App initiative is a game changer for the podcasting industry. We believe the next great opportunity on the web for media is the seamless combination of three trends – publishing services, advertising and micropayments for App sales,” says Dave Mansueto, co-founder Wizzard Media. “Now, podcasting becomes a platform that converts audiences to revenue, accelerated by the micropayment billing process that Apple has created with the App store. We believe this new process is the model for how digital media is published, audiences are grown and revenues derived.”
“We know there is strong demand for the podcasts we distribute seeing downloads grow from 400 million to well over 1 billion in the last three years and monthly audiences grow from 4 million to 18 million,” says Laurie Sims, President of Wizzard Media. “Now that we have a method to charge for podcast content and subscriptions, we believe there is dramatic change ahead for the podcast industry. Unlike most Apps in the App store, podcasters have a distinct advantage to successfully market their App in iTunes due to the fact that they have already built a substantial audience for their product through iTunes.”
About Wizzard Media:
Wizzard Media provides publishing and distribution services to podcasters and monetization services for podcasters. Wizzard Media is the industry's leading podcasting network with an unprecedented 1.2 billion download requests in 2008. Podcasts are a means for independent and professional content creators to publish audio and video shows for the world to enjoy over the Internet or on mp3 players, such as the Apple iPod®, iPhone® and the Microsoft Zune®. Podcasting is a relatively new phenomenon, but Wizzard Media collectively broadcasts millions of podcast downloads per day through media aggregators like Apple's iTunes and Microsoft's Zune Marketplace. For more information, please visit www.wizzardsoftware.com/media . Wizzard Media is a division of Wizzard Software, a leader in speech technology distribution and development.
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