A trio of female entertainment industry veterans have started a podcast network catering to women, carving out a niche as the nascent format expands rapidly and attracts bigger advertising dollars.
Former comedy agent Priyanka Mattoo joined writers and actresses Maria Blasucci and Amanda Lund to start Earios, which features female-hosted and produced content.
Blasucci and Lund thought up Earios while shopping their own independent shows and discovered that women-led podcast networks were hard to find.
The team, which surpassed their $25,000 Kickstarter goal last year, partnered with podcast company Acast to launch their inaugural 12 shows, which includes series from stand-up comedian Margaret Cho, indie pop singer Feist and co-creator of Netflix’s Love, Lesley Arfin.
- “We wanted to make it easier for women to share their ideas with a like-minded community,” Mattoo told Deadline.
- Just over half of podcast listeners are female and roughly 30% of the most popular shows are hosted or co-hosted by women, according to industry research.
- Of the top 36 podcast networks listed by podcast industry news site TopPodcast.com, only three are run by women: WNYC, Public Radio Exchange and TWiT.
- Only six of the top 50 shows on today’s Apple Podcast’s Top Shows chart are produced by networks with women in charge.
- Karma Take: As the podcast space becomes more crowded and competition for ad revenue increases, entrants like Earios need to differentiate in order to draw listeners, talent and investors.
