Nine launches 9Podcasts offering with the aim of becoming ‘one-stop shop for clients’
Nine has announced the release of its new podcast strategy 9Podcasts with Nine looking to become a “one-stop shop” for clients.
Nine’s first foray into the medium centred on a relationships podcast ‘The Sweet Spot’ which pivoted off Nine’s reality series Married at First Sight.
New podcasts include a NRL podcast called ‘Six Tackles With Gus’ hosted by Phil Gould and James Bracey and a current affairs podcast ‘The Way It Is’ hosted by Leila McKinnon and Neil Breen.
Helen McCabe, head of lifestyle at Nine Entertainment Co, told Mumbrella: “At the moment its just a bit of fun, we’re just testing the proposition and using our existing talent and seeing whether we can make it work and seeing how it works.”
McCabe said 9Podcasts aim is to assist the Nine Network in becoming a “one-stop shop” for clients.
“Saying to clients you’ve got the full suit of possibilities at Nine from broadcasts to podcast to digital to native to programmatic, we’re a one-stop shop. It’s an easy thing for us to do and test so we kicked it off with The Sweet Spot” she said.
Helen McCabe wants to “own” Married at First Sight Audience
On The Sweet Spot, McCabe said Nine wanted to “own” the Married at First Sight audience.
“One of my key roles is to further integrate the TV and digital assets and this was a nice way of doing that by saying we’re going to run stories on Married at First Sight, we’re going to break stories on Married At First Sight and then we’re going to give you the opportunity to download a podcast on it as well,” she said.
“We’d seen others do that really well, we felt we had missed an opportunity do to that as well as we could. The Sweet Spot filled the extra void.”
McCabe said podcasts are an opportunity for clients but that is not currently the focus yet.
“We’re just waiting to see how they develop, we want to build the content first, a bit like Honey,” she said.
“We’d like the situation to be where podcasts do get traction and for clients to be listening to them and love them and it works in that way.”
On why podcasts are striking a chord with audiences McCabe said it’s the raw quality of the podcasts that appeals.
“They’re really appealing because they’re short, they’re fun, they’re informal and they are informative. They are not as polished,” she said.
“It is innovative for us to be doing it in the way that we are doing it, with our talent.”
Amanda Laing, managing director of Nine, said in a statement: “Our commercial goal has been to expand and leverage our content expertise into new areas for the business.
“We see the clear potential for Nine to provide our audiences with additional reasons and opportunities to engage with us for longer and in more meaningful ways. That has been at the heart of our podcasting strategy.
“Nine is a brand synonymous with news and sport, so we want to feature our talent and build on brands such as Nine News and Wide World of Sports in a way that is complementary to what we are already doing. 9Podcasts will leverage our television and digital reach in news, sport and entertainment and develop a new revenue stream in audio.”
The podcasts will be available through nine.com.au as well as through the iTunes store.
Abigail Dawson was Mumbrella's senior content journalist covering event content. She left Mumbrella to move into an agency role in 2020.
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