“A lot of brands are keen to engage with their consumers through podcasts”

Over the last few years, India has seen a steady increase in the number of people listening to podcasts. The emergence of independent content providers has been aided by the proliferation of DIY platforms, leading in a greater availability of fresh content. Podcast has picked up well in India & already constitutes 1% of the total time spent.

One Digital Entertainment is Asia’s leading digital media and creator network, specialising in content in the areas of music, food, comedy, Bollywood, fashion, and lifestyle. It collaborates with some of the industry's most prominent names, including MostlySane, CarryMinati, Alia Bhatt, Badshah, Yuvraj Singh, Sanjeev Kapoor, Armaan Malik, Rannvijay, RSVP Movies, and Excel Movies, to name a few.

In conversation with Adgully, Gurpreet Singh, COO and Co-founder, One Digital Entertainment, speaks about the podcasting scenario in India, the growth prospects, PodOne’s journey in the country and more. Excerpts:

How has been PodOne’s journey in the podcasting space?

PodOne is a dedicated podcast vertical by One Digital Entertainment (one of the leading digital media companies in Asia). One Digital Entertainment launched PodOne to curate and produce quality audio and video podcasts. Under this vertical; two podcasts have been launched currently, a podcast on sex education which is hosted by none other than the award-winning Sex Educator Leeza Mangaldas and B Social podcast, which offers engaging content around entertainment, literature, fieldwork, agriculture along with a wide coverage of community issues in Punjabi. These podcasts are exclusively available at Spotify.

It’s been observed and stated in many recently conducted reports that Podcast consumption has increased many fold over the last few years and it already has made a strong presence among the listeners considering the different genres of quality content available today. Its popularity among listeners is because of its non-intrusive way of entertainment, which has gained a lot of momentum. Hence, it felt like a dedicated vertical is the need of the hour.

With PodOne, we aim to create a platform where it becomes a one-stop dedicated vertical for a myriad genres and ensures quality and engaging content while driving revenues for the creators from our relationships with key platforms and brands.

Who is your TG? Which markets are you targetting?

The best part about audio content is that it is consumed by all age groups, depending upon the genre. At the moment, podcast is a great route to engage great storytellers or content creators.

Which other podcasters or influencers have you planned to launch?

As I said earlier, recently, we launched two podcasts, one with Sex Educator and Influencer Leeza Mangaldas and another with a popular web channel from Punjab, B Social, and both are exclusive with Spotify. Soon, we will be launching our own unique properties, including Instant Bollywood Podcast and Social Nation Podcast followed by Pet Talks, a Podcast for Pet Parents and Food Scientist, another much in demand content giving you everything about  Health, Science, and Nutrition. Besides, we are getting a lot of existing Podcasters, especially from regional languages into our network of PodOne. Other than this, a lot of brands are also keen to engage with their consumers through this medium.

How do you view the content consumption pattern of the Indian audience in the past years?

Podcasts have seen an immense growth in the last 3-4 years, and with the increase of screen time due to pandemic people certainly understood the non-intrusive power of the audio medium. Besides, a lot of publishing platforms like Spotify, Amazon, or Gaana, who are already our partners for music content. diverted their focus to Podcasts, and with the insights received from them surprisingly a lot of the younger generation is consuming podcasts reminiscent of the  radio days.

What makes PodOne different from others?

First, PodOne has an edge since it already has 3,000+ creators in its network. Besides, we are already in partnership with almost all publishing platforms, including international as well. We aim to bridge the gap, employ the best audio praxises, attract brands and sponsors and thus, create a sustainable model for creators, which has been the core philosophy of One Digital Entertainment.

How do you see the growth of the podcast industry in the next few years? 

It is too early to comment on the future growth. But, if we analyse the content consumption pattern, audio is on a tremendous growth trajectory.

Apart from Hindi and Punjabi, what other languages is One Digital Entertainment planning to expand?

We are currently trying to innovate with different podcast formats in Gujarati, Marathi and Bangla languages, besides also focussing on launching podcasts with Celebrities, Artists, Mentors, and Influencers.