SCA, CEO, Grant Blackley announced that respected media agency executive, Seb Rennie will join the business in the newly created role of Executive Head – LiSTNR Commercial.

Rennie comes to SCA from Group M, where he has spent the past eight years, most recently as Chief Investment Officer for Australia and New Zealand.

At SCA, Rennie will be responsible for leading LiSTNR’s commercial strategy and driving the digital audio commercial division within the business, as LiSTNR continues its strong growth trajectory.

Rennie has 20 plus years’ experience in the media industry and has worked in and with some of the largest and most influential media agencies, media owners, advertisers and tech vendors in Australia and Canada. During his career, he has worked with Mediacom in the UK and Australia, OMD as Group Trading Manager and MEC as Chief Investment Officer prior to moving to Group M in 2015.

In just under two years since its launch, LiSTNR has become Australia’s number one podcast network with more than 5.38 million monthly listeners. SCA is the number one sales representation business of podcasting in Australia, representing its extensive premium, original podcast slate and a range of international and local podcast partners including Stitcher, Wondery, the AFL, NRL, Schwartz Media, DM Podcasts, and the Royal Institution of Australia.

LiSTNR houses more than 500 podcast titles, 154 Hit and Triple M radio and DAB+ stations, 29 music stations, and news and information. The LiSTNR app has been installed 2 million times since launch, and it frequently appears in the top 10 most popular entertainment apps. The number of plays per month on LiSTNR increased by almost 300% in 2022.

“Seb is a proven leader with unrivaled media negotiation and investment strategy skills, a strong managerial background, with a proven track record in the creation and implementation of plans to deliver on business needs. We are thrilled to have an executive of his calibre and experience join us and I look forward to seeing LiSTNR’s commercial strategy continue to gain further momentum – delivering a leading digital audio service and accompanying growth rate,” Grant Blackley said.

Commenting on his new role, Rennie said: “The opportunity to lead LiSTNR’s commercial strategy was too good to pass up. I have watched LiSTNR’s growth, innovation, an commercial success with keen interest; its a unique offering in the Australian market with enormous untapped potential for advertisers. The digital audio sector is primed for strong growth this year and beyond, and LiSTNR’s addressable audience of more than one million people is a sustainable and highly saleable commercial proposition. It’s a very exciting time to be joining SCA and I look forward to working with the team to deliver compelling commercial outcomes for both advertisers and LiSTNR.”

Rennie will commence the new role on 20 March.

LiSTNR has retained its position as Australia’s number one podcast network with more than 6.2 million monthly listeners in the October Triton Podcast Ranker.

LiSTNR has nine of the top 20 podcast titles and three of Australia’s top podcasts in their genres:

• No. 1 comedy podcast – Hamish & Andy
• No. 1 news podcast – 7am with Schwartz Media
• No. 1 sports podcast – The Howie Games

Other LiSTNR podcasts in the top 20 include Crime Junkie, It’s A Lot with Abbie Chatfield, Morbid, On Purpose with Jay Shetty, SmartLess, and Triple M’s Rush Hour with JB & Billy.

LiSTNR also has the most podcasts ranked in the Top 50 Podcasts including My Favorite Murder, The Briefing, Triple M’s The Marty Sheargold Show, 2 Bears 1 Cave with Tom Segura & Bert Kreicher, Just the Gist, Hamish & Andy’s Remembering Project, Last Podcast On The Left, Freakonomics Radio, Conan O’Brian Needs A Friend, KICPOD, and 99% Invisible.

That’s Enough Already with Urzila Carlson jumped 20 places to make its debut in the Top 100 Podcasts, while The Generation Why Podcast with Wondery rose 34 places to also make its Top 100 debut.

Real Crime: Australia Detectives and The Mel Robbins Podcast with Stitcher Media made their debut in the Top 150 Podcasts Ranker in October.

“Remaining the number one podcast network is a great result. As we head into summer and the new year, LiSTNR will continue to publish new episodes across current titles and also with new original podcasts, such as the doc-series, The Children in the Pictures, the Peking Duk Podcast from Australian music sensations of the same name, and Willow Talk for cricket fans,” SCA Executive Head LiSTNR Podcasts, Grant Tothill, said.

“There are more new original podcasts publishing in November and December and early 2023 as we continue to curate and create a diverse, premium library of podcasts to serve our growing audience across entertainment, sport, factual and drama, parenting and kids, and news and information.”

LiSTNR is again Australia’s number on podcast network with more than 6.6 million monthly listeners in the September Triton Podcast Ranker.

LiSTNR has nine of top 20 titles and three of the top podcasts in their genres, including Hamish & Andy as the no. 1 comedy podcast, and the no. 1 sports podcast with The Howie Games which moved up 15 places to number 10 in the Top 100.

7am in partnership with Schwartz Media and LiSTNR, was the no. 1 news podcast.

Other LiSTNR podcasts in the top 20 include Crime Junkie, Morbid, Triple M’s Rush Hour with JB & Billy jumping four places to 12th position, It’s A Lot with Abbie Chatfield, Triple M Footy AFL, and On Purpose with Jay Shetty.

“LiSTNR also has the most podcasts ranked in the Top 50 Podcasts including My Favorite Murder, SmartLess, The Briefing, The Marty Sheargold Show, Just the Gist, The Scorecard with Liam Flanagan, 2 Bears 1 Cave with Tom Segura & Bert Kreischer, Hamish & Andy’s Remembering Project, Freakonomics Radio, KICPOD, Last Podcast On The Left, Conan O’Brian Needs A Friend, and 99% Invisible.

“LiSTNR’s monthly audience growth on the September Podcast Ranker now exceeds 6.6 million listeners, reinforcing LiSTNR as Australia’s number one podcast network. Our growing slate of original podcasts, complemented by our new podcast partnerships with Stitcher and Wondery, along with established partnerships with Schwartz Media, Ten, RiAUS and the AFL, will continue to offer audiences and advertisers the biggest and most diverse slate of high-quality podcasts to listen to or advertise in,” SCA Executive Head, LiSTNR Podcasts, Grant Tothill said.

“We launched six new original podcasts during September including including Dadtime Story Collection, The Minds Changing Lives with the University of Newcastle, Andy Lee’s Do Not Open This Book for Eternity and The Showroom in partnership with carsales new seasons of Hamish & Andy’s Remembering Project and The Howie Games Artist Series, plus Christian Hull’s popular Complete Drivel podcast moved to LiSTNR.”

LiSTNR General Manager, Digital Audio, Grant Tothill announced the appointment of Ian Walker, one of Australia’s most experienced Podcast executives will join the LiSTNR podcast team. He will work alongside Original Podcasts Head of Content, Jennifer Goggin, to actively develop and create new Factual and Scripted Podcasts to expand LiSTNR’s Real Crime slate, along with growing the scripted fiction genre for Australian international audiences.

Walker joins SCA from ABC Audio Studios, where he was instrumental in the rise of the national broadcaster’s in-house Podcast unit. During a seven-year period, Walker was the creative brains behind the development and production of more than a dozen new Podcasts across multiple genres.

Walker is best known for his award-winning, narrative non-fiction output, as creator and team leader of the ABC’s chart-topping and pioneering Unravel True Crime. The podcast has achieved more than 11 million downloads over five-seasons and spawned three companion TV documentary spinoffs.

He is also “pod daddy” to the much-loved ABC flagship storytelling podcast Days Like These and the upcoming history investigations podcast DiG.

Beginning his media career as a newsreader at Triple J, Walker moved into investigative radio journalism. He is well-known in the TV documentary sector for his work as director, producer, executive producer, and development producer having helped deliver dozens of hours of network television for various commercial production houses. He has won awards for his television documentary writing and directing.

As Senior Executive Producer, Factual and Scripted Podcasts at LiSTNR, Walker will report to Goggin, who said: “We are so excited to have someone of Ian’s calibre and track record join our Original Podcasts team as we develop our slate for 2022. Ian’s experience not only working with podcasts but in award-winning writing, directing, and producing will be incredibly valuable as we continue to launch new and original Australian storytelling for both Australian and international audiences.

Commenting on his appointment, Walker said: “It’s a super exciting time to be joining LiSTNR where the energy and drive amongst the team is palpable and the vision and opportunities are clear. We’re set on making a big splash in two of the most exciting podcast genres, serialized documentary, and audio fiction. The mission is ti excite audiences and connect new listeners to the brand.

“I’m looking forward to bringing my track record, storytelling experience and network of outstanding content makers to help make LiSTNR the new market in quality audio storytelling.

Walker’s appointment is effective January 10, 2022.

SCA’s LiSTNR network has achieved a new record high of 10.9 million active streams during May, an increase of 20% year on year, demonstrating the expanding audience appetite for digital audio listening and advertiser demand.

Podcast listening across LiSTNR’s premium original titles reached a record of 2.7 million listeners, an increase of 18% year on year.

LiSTNR delivered 10.9 million total listening hours across its live streaming radio, podcasts, music, news, sport, and information offering – up to 9% year on year, while unique streaming listeners grew by 19% to 1.56 million people.

Smart speaker listening continues to surge, with 2.8 million total listening hours in May, an increase of 36% year on year.

LiSTNR offers targeted audiences at scale, who listen for longer, creating more addressable advertising opportunities than ever before. During May, brands harnessing the power of digital audio via the LiSTNR platform doubled year on year.

“Our unique ability to understand our users provides us with quality data to plan and execute digital audio campaigns, validated by the incredible 64% growth in advertisers who have taken advantage of digital audio campaigns in the last year. We are enjoying the opportunity to help our advertisers drive brand recall and purchase with our platform in new and creative ways,” SCA Chief Sales Officer, Brian Gallagher, said.

“LiSTNR has created a premium, personalized digital audio ecosystem for both audiences and advertisers which reaches over 4 million Australians and is growing fast. Streaming hours and time spent listening across our radio brands, podcasts, news and music continues to surge, demonstrating that consumers have now embraced digital audio as part of their daily lives.”

Launched in February, LiSTNR is a curated and personalized free app offering radio, podcasts, music, and news, creating new audio destination for all Australians. LiSTNR houses more than 100 premium original local, national, and global podcasts, live radio streams, radio podcasts and digital music stations from the Hit and Triple M networks, 15 linear music live streaming channels, four weekly music podcasts and an on-demand audio News and Info service.