"Be it through our independently produced podcasts, or those of our partners and external providers via our iHeartRadio platform, we cater to a hugely diverse audience which shows the strength of NZME's network.
The latest data also came with good news for the Herald's marquee podcast, the Front Page, which hit its highest ranking on the Podranker since its launch earlier this year.
The Front Page, hosted by Damien Venuto, rose to 12th spot in the September podcast rundown. The podcast has had 265,334 downloads since March this year, when it first appeared podcast ranker.
NZME's Between Two Beers podcast, hosted by Steven Holloway and Seamus Marten, also performed well, hitting the 14th spot on the table and has been downloaded over 600,000 times in the past year.
Cooking the Books, hosted by Frances Cook, rounded out the top 20 in the latest rankings. This popular business podcast has secured 329,572 downloads in the past year.
NZME head of digital audio James Butcher pointed to the Australian market to show the potential for the channel in New Zealand.
"In Australia, for example, around 40 per cent of Australians have listened to a podcast in the past month, and these numbers will only grow as more and more people understand the strength and variability of podcasts globally," he said.
"We are seeing more and more brands value the powerful advertising possibilities that podcasting provides through the intimate connection between host and listener."
In the monthly NZ Triton Podcast Ranker, NZME-produced podcasts Fletch, Vaughan & Hayley and Mike Hosking Breakfast have regularly made the top or second spot over the past year, with Matt Heath & Jeremy Wells also securing a regular spot in the top 10 with their award-winning Matt & Jerry podcast.
Hayley Sproull from ZM's Fletch, Vaughan & Hayley said it was promising to see huge growth in this digital audience.
"Taking out the top spot a few times over the past year has been awesome.
"We love providing our listeners with fun, entertaining content and having it available across different platforms makes it even easier for them to tune in wherever they are."
Matt Heath from Radio Hauraki Breakfast and the Matt & Jerry Show podcast mirrored this sentiment in his comments to the Herald.
"We're really proud to consistently have around 50,000 regular listeners to our podcast," he said.
"As well as our loyal Radio Hauraki listeners tuning into our podcast, it also provides another avenue for us to connect with a more diverse range of listeners locally and globally, across different backgrounds and ages. Podcasts are such a powerful and entertaining platform and the variety of content available really does blow your mind."
NZME's diverse podcast network covers everything from current affairs to parenting, finance to dating advice, and sport to te reo Māori pronunciation.
You can find them all on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your favourite podcasts.
