A recent report prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is forecasting that advertising revenue derived from podcasts will reach $1 billion by 2021. The forecast and the data in the report was produced by PwC via information reported directly to the consulting firm from various companies selling advertising in the podcast market. The full PwC report can be viewed here.

In 2018, self-reported podcast revenues by 22 reporting companies in the United States totaled $344.7 million, according to the report. Overall, PwC estimated the total podcast advertising market in the U.S. at $479.1 million in 2018.

Among the other key findings of the report:

  • Self-reported year-over-year revenue increased 34 percent in 2018 from 2017 self-reported revenue total of $257.4 million.
  • Total market year-over-year revenue increased an estimated 53 percent in 2018 from the $313.9 million total in 2017.
  • Total market year-over-year revenue is projected to increase by 42 percent in 2019.
According to some market observers, podcasters are beginning a slow transition to dynamic ads (a format that allows for changing ad content over time as opposed to using just one ad “baked into a show for its entire existence). Dynamically inserted ads now account for 48.8 percent of podcast ads business, according to PwC’s report.