Channel Nine is looking to grow new revenue streams with a podcasting strategy built around many of its existing news, sports and lifestyle brands.
Launched under the umbrella of 9Podcasts, Nine has already rolled out three weekly podcasts, including Sweet Spot which launched off the back of Married at First Sight, an NRL podcast, Six Tackles with Gus, and a current affairs podcast, The Way It Is.
The Way It Is launched last week led by Nine journalists Leila McKinnon and Neil Breen.
Speaking with AdNews, Nine head of lifestyle Helen McCabe says the podcasts are part of her wider strategy to cross-pollinate all of the network’s assets.
The shows don't currently carry advertising, with Nine focusing on the content at this stage, but it is an end goal for the network.
“Varied revenue streams are always important at a commercial network, but we aren’t putting a huge amount of pressure or expectation on the podcast just yet,” she says.
“The end goal would be for it to be commercialised but we are currently testing the waters at the moment and taking our time to get the content right.”
Nine is looking to roll out other podcasts that across its key content areas over the course of the year, across news, sport and entertainment, specifically.
“Our commercial goal has been to expand and leverage our content expertise into new areas for the business,” Nine Entertainment Co MD Amanda Laing says.
“We see the clear potential for Nine to provide our audiences with additional reasons and opportunities to engage with us for longer and in more meaningful ways. That has been at the heart of our podcasting strategy.
“Nine is a brand synonymous with news and sport, so we want to feature our talent and build on brands such as Nine News and Wide World of Sports in a way that is complementary to what we are already doing."
McCabe says a podcast like Sweet Spot can work independently of Married at First Sight and while the success of the show has leveraged the podcast, she expects it to build its own audience beyond the program.
“With something like Married at First Sight we have audiences who are tuning in to watch the show, reading recaps and news stories around the participants on 9Honey, and then downloading the podcast to listen to the experts exploring the relationship issues raised in the program,” she says.
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