Which Podcasts Have The Most Ads?

Since the early days of podcasting, advertising has been a bit of a touchy subject. Some claimed that having ads in podcasts would be the ultimate sellout. An end to the medium’s purity as a by-the-people-for-the-people creation. Others waited with marked anticipation for the arrival of parties who were interested in providing money in exchange for sponsored messages. Whatever side of the fence you’re on, advertising in podcasting is definitely here to stay. With that in mind, I decided to do a fairly unscientific poll of which podcasts actually have the most ads. Using an Evernote document, I made a simple tally of the number of times I heard an ad during podcasts I’m subscribed to or podcasts I work on for clients. This includes preroll, post-roll, and mid-roll ads, whether they were live reads or prerecorded. If a show had a simple, “This podcast is sponsored by…” tagline, I didn’t include it unless the message was longer than five seconds. Here’s the results:

Triangulation, the interview show from Leo Laporte’s TWiT network tops the list with a massive seven ads. Immediately followed by “Cosmos” TV show host Neil Degrasse Tyson’s popular Star Talk Radio with six ads. Things start to slow down from there, with most shows having three ads or less. Again, this is a very unscientific poll and probably isn’t representative of any real trends in terms of podcasts and advertising. Just knowing the number of ads in a single episode doesn’t tell us much unless we also know how long the ads are vs. how long the episodes are. Regardless, as someone who’s been listening to podcasts since 2004, it’s interesting to see a list like this. Back then, the notion of monetizing podcasts thru ads seemed like a pipe dream. But clearly, that dream has been realized, for better or worse, depending on your preferences.

Posted by Shawn Thorpe