“The consumption of digital audio in Australia is growing rapidly and presents an exciting opportunity for SCA to capitalise on this emerging market and LiSTNR will be our new ‘home’ for SCA’s digital audio content.” – SCA Chief Operating Officer John Kelly, Feb 22, 2021.
February 17, 2021 was a portentous day in for Australian media. Facebook made good on a threat to remove news posts from its platform in response to the Australian Government’s mandatory bargaining code for digital media giants. This included for most radio stations, who had “no posts yet” come up on their pages, with all content past and present removed.
Meanwhile on the same day, former SCA CEO, Grant Blackley sat down for a chat with Radioinfo to launch LiSTNR, a curated and personalised free app offering radio, podcasts, music and news. Three years in the making, and following extensive research into consumers’ evolving audio habits and needs, SCA had made the significant decision to not utilise someone else’s existing ecosystem, ala iHeart, but build their own asset from the ground up.
The new app, which superseded PodcastOne was, according to Blackley, part of the company’s digital audio first strategy:
“This strategy is part of our DNA. It is at the centre of the business… a golden age of audio. The growth of audio has accelerated during covid, but there is even more growth to come. The world of audio is growing. it is a healthy space for multiple parties to play in.”
There was much more growth to come, from that period of time when we were still knee deep in Covid. In August 2025, in a much tougher advertising environment, SCA’s digital revenue grew by 28.8% to $45.1 million and LiSTNR became EBITDA cashflow positive. In four years.
Those following along across those years will know that SCA also went through some of the toughest times where, for a while there it looked like rival network ARN was going to buy them and split up the assets with Anchorage Capital Partners. There were also several rounds of severe job cuts and role consolidations.
Meanwhile LiSTNR chugged along nicely under the watchful eyes of Blackley, Kelly and particularly Grant Tothill and Chris Johnson. Tothill stepped down from his role as Executive Head, LiSTNR Operations and Audience in November 2025. Johnson is the Executive Head of LiSTNR Product and Technology.
December is perhaps not the best month to gauge podcast listenership, as some are taking their festive breaks, but despite that LiSTNR had 40 podcasts in the top 200 of the Triton Australian Podcast Ranker, with 24 of those ones that LiSTNR has both the publishing and sales rights for. No 1, as it has been for much of the last five years, is Hamish and Andy, probably the best known of the locally produced podcasts, and one that has been with LiSTNR right from the start.
You will now find on LiSTNR all of SCA’s radio stations and their catch up podcasts, plus the networks many different DAB+ stations. It’s expanded to add new capabilities like the AdTech Hub and Precision Plus which not only gives better outcomes to advertisers but equally importantly means SCA has full ownership of its technology roadmap and all the data within.
This means being able to pivot quickly when something is, or isn’t working, without having to justify or work in with a global picture.
The Milano Cortina Winter Olympics are currently occurring and Australia have won 3 Gold and 1 Silver medal (so far), our best Winter Olympics results ever. Before Stephen Bradbury in 1994, we’d never won a medal! I was reflecting on the higher expectations I had going into these games, as an armchair watcher, living in a country not overly conducive to snow sports in the most part. The very hard work that goes on behind the scenes to build now a significant Australian Winter games legacy and even lingo like ‘doing a Bradbury.’
I imagine that leading up to February 2021 most of the other radio networks would have been aware that SCA was trying to create their own digital audio legacy product. It would have been expensive and time consuming. Looking in the rear view mirror, lots of shows, strategies and gambles haven’t paid off, lesson were learned and it was a steep learning curve. However, five years in, they’ve shown what can be achieved, and LiSTNR is a genuine stand alone asset that has further expansion opportunities with the recent merger between SCA and SWM.
Additionally, the ABC have now pulled their stations from the iHeart app, driving the audience to use their own ABC Listen. I would suggest this can be attributed to the LiSTNR effect. The ABC, who have the highest percentage of podcasts in the top 100 of the ranker, have had issues in consistency of delivery from the third party app, which are beyond their control, compared to their inhouse ABC Listen, which has also vastly improved over the last five years.
LiSTNR has opened doors for creators and important conversations. It is an incredibly significant benchmark platform and product for the Australian audio industry. On its 5th anniversary LiSTNR has proved itself worth the time and initial outlay and become the jewel in SCA’s crown.
Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo. Email: [email protected]
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SCA launches LiSTNR audio app: Grant Blackley explains the strategy in our podcast
Tothill and Johnson promoted as part of SCA’s digital audio strategy