Karl Stefanovic podcast surges as mainstream media deals collapse
Karl Stefanovic may have lost millions in mainstream media jobs, but there’s been a fresh twist.
Karl Stefanovic may have lost millions in mainstream media jobs, but his podcast empire has gone from strength to strength.
Stefanovic’s divisive interview with far-right agitator Tommy Robinson ended up being the catalyst which saw him sever ties with both Nine and ARN.
In the last fortnight, he has had two mainstream sources of income dry up, and there’s been a lot of criticism thrown his way — but The Karl Stefanovic Show is taking off.
Since the infamous Robinson interview, he has gained 68,000 YouTube subscribers and over 300,000 unique viewers.
On Spotify, the audience grew by 40 per cent compared to the previous seven days; on Instagram, his followers increased by 36 per cent.
On Facebook, there’s been a 41 per cent increase in followers and a staggering 21.6 million views.
The increase in eyeballs isn’t even coming from overseas – after all, Robinson is from the UK – but rather from Aussies.
The audience remains 96 per cent Australian on Instagram, 97 per cent Australian on Facebook, and 79 per cent Australian on YouTube.
There is some interest coming from abroad – the UK audience has increased by 5 per cent since the interview – but Aussies are the main ones who can’t look away from Stefanovic.
The mainstream media might be rejecting Stefanovic, but audiences are lapping up his “I’m not right-wing, I’m right” content.
Keshnee “Kesh” Kemp, co-founder and producer of The Karl Stefanovic Show, explained that the program’s growth has been incredible.
“It’s been incredibly humbling to see the growth across all platforms of our show. We tested UK content with our audience before we went overseas, and the sign was clear: they wanted more of it,” she told news.com.au.
“The support for Karl and his right to share different perspectives has been overwhelmingly positive.
“It means a great deal to us that our community is rising up for the right to hear other voices and we will continue to champion that across our network of shows.”
Ms Kemp said the business will now focus on moving forward and expanding, because it’s got such great momentum.
“Now we move into the next phase of growth: expanding into multiple shows, continuing to grow our cross-platform verticals and doubling down on what our audience has told us they want to hear about,” she said.
“We’ll also continue to venture into different topics and themes as Karl wants to – that’s the beauty of it being The Karl Stefanovic Show!”
Karl Stefanovic is free to do podcast ‘without fear’ after Nine exit
A week before he left Nine, Stefanovic spoke with news.com.au and admitted that the plan for the podcast was to expand beyond Australia.
“Sky News has done a great job in the US,” he said.
“We don’t have the resources that they have, but the way they’ve been able to identify and take advantage of certain sides of things in the US has been really successful for them.”
Stefanovic said that obviously the plan was to work on and execute it with a much smaller team.
“I think that will work for us in a much more scaled-down way and be something that we’ll do in our own right, with our flavour and our tastes,” he explained.
It only took six months of Stefanovic doing his own independent podcast, which was becoming increasingly controversial by mainstream media standards, to make working at ARN and Nine untenable for the kind of content he wants to produce.
His contract at Nine, which was up in December, was worth over $2 million, and he was reportedly getting around $200,000 for a Friday arvo show on ARN. Sadly, that show lasted less than two months.
After losing his Nine gig, he declared he was “free” … and so far, it seems to be working for him.