Mumbai: In the world of audio leisure, there is a new class that’s quickly gaining recognition – audio sequence. Audio Series is a long-form or serialized fiction audio storytelling much like TV sequence. And one firm on the forefront of this pattern is Pocket FM. As a platform devoted to long-form, serialized fiction storytelling, Pocket FM has been in a position to seize the eye of audiences in India and past with its distinctive proposition. This has been our core focus and distinctive proposition, with this class dominating consumption on the platform registering over 90 per cent of the listener time spent. Ashu Behl, the SVP of Content & Strategy at Pocket FM, has delved into the expansion of the audio sequence class, the influence of COVID-19 on the sector, investments in native Indian podcasts, and the challenges dealing with the podcasting trade in India.

1.  As far as your podcasting enterprise stands, what’s the form of progress it has witnessed in listenership in India, if in any respect? How does that evaluate with music streaming?

While we’ve seen promising progress for data and conversational content material within the audio area led by podcasts and audiobooks, the audio sequence class witnessed an exponential trajectory final yr. As we shared in our Rewind2022 report, we’ve witnessed that our day by day listener time spent has surpassed the opposite types of audio and video leisure within the digital area. Industry knowledge reveals 45 minutes of common day by day customers’ time spent on brief video platforms, whereas audio OTTs and video OTTs clock 65 minutes and 70 minutes, respectively. On the opposite, the common day by day listener time spent on Pocket FM is over 110 minutes.

Audio Series emerged as the brand new X-factor within the leisure area. The long-form content material has not solely introduced binge-listening conduct into audio area, but in addition offered leisure boosters for listeners throughout commutes, family chores, work hours, and even leisure hours. This reiterates the energy of the audio sequence in holding the viewers engaged and entertained 24×7, no matter their actions, with recent, unique, continuous and recent content material. The acceptable combine of those 4 components is the prima cellular (prime mover) of audio sequence, absent in different leisure codecs.

2.  The style is estimated to have seen a lot uptick throughout covid. Has that sustained/risen? Why/why not?

Audio sequence is a brand new leisure class and has immense potential globally. While we validated the massive demand for this class in India, we imagine audio sequence shall be a worldwide leisure categorAudio Series have all the time been on the surge, no matter the decline within the different codecs. Pocket FM has witnessed over 45 billion minutes of streaming in 2022, a 2X progress from 2021.

Last yr we expanded globally, with the US launch, and replicated our progress and content material playbook of audio sequence for world audiences. There additionally, we’ve additionally seen robust adoption of audio sequence and progress in listening time.

3.  What are the investments you make in native Indian podcasts? (what does the slate seem like, what number of titles are you planning yearly, and what are the content material spends like)? Have these investments seen progress year-on-year? Why/why not?

Pocket FM is powered by its 500,000+ creator group, consisting of writers, voice actors, and sound engineers. We will proceed to nurture and spend money on our creator group and allow them to showcase their skills and posit the chances of being reworked into (audio) celebrities. In 2022, we invested over US$10 million in numerous creator applications and incentives. Last yr, the content material library expanded with 1500+ titles, and our most sequence goes over 500-800 episodes. In 2023, we’ll proceed to extend the spending to increase our creator group throughout the globe and encourage them to create high-quality sequence for the worldwide viewers.

4.  India is not a market the place podcasts are seen as a type of mainstream leisure—what are the challenges for the sector on this particular market? Why have podcasts not seen their breakout second in India but?

You are most likely proper! We experimented with podcasts in the course of the early section of our product journey, and we realized that podcasts are nice for conversations, however lack the leisure quotient. Core challenges for the standard podcast area have been an absence of participating and unique content material, interesting solely to area of interest person teams and solely dependence on an advert/sponsorship-led monetization mannequin. This impressed us to innovate with leisure components within the audio area, ensuing within the discovery of a extra participating and worthwhile content material ecosystem within the type of audio sequence.

This distinctive and unique content material with robust enchantment for the lots, coupled with micropayment, has accelerated our content material monetization, taking our ARR (annualized income fee) to US$25 million, a rise of 12X in 10 months, reported till October 2022. With the audio sequence, we are able to say that the audio leisure panorama is definitely witnessing its breakout second and creating immense potentialities for mainstream leisure.

The creator of this text is Pocket FM SVP – content material & technique Ashu Behl.