Wizzard Software has announced 2010 financial results, recording a $4.1 million net loss, on revenues of $5,5 million in 2010, a drop from their $6.5 million net loss in 2009..

Wizzard notes that, in terms of net loss, this was Wizzard’s best annual performance in over 8 years.

They also note that “We have a history of losses and we may never achieve profitability.”

Wizzard derives its revenue from podcast publishing platform fees, podcast advertising sales, App sales as well as through speech recognition and text-to-speech programming tools, distributable engines and speech related consulting services and support.  Additionally, Wizzard derives revenues through the offering of home healthcare services through its wholly-owned subsidiary Interim Healthcare of Wyoming, Inc.

Revenues increased in 2010 by 7%. The increase was driven by Wizzard’s Healthcare segment.

2010 Business Highlights:

• For 2010, Wizzard Media, through their podcast-hosting service Libsyn, received 1.64 billion download requests for podcast episodes, with an average of 4.47 million episode requests per day vs. an average of 3.81 million requests per day in 2009.
• During the fourth quarter, 2010, the Wizzard Media Network hit a record high of 19,660,000 monthly unique audience members requesting 465,701,849 podcast episodes.
• Wizzard Media finished 2010 with 1,002 Podcast Apps and delivered 77 million advertising impressions over the course of the year.

Wizzard’s 2010 SEC filing can be found here.

Podcast hosting network Wizzard Media today announced the availability of In App Purchasing for its Podcast Apps in the iTunes App store.

Wizzard’s iPhone App is designed to be quickly customized for each podcast. It lets podcast publishers offer their own iPhone App.

With In App Purchasing capabilities, podcast publishers will be able to offer their paid audience additional features and content, charging a one-time fee or a reoccurring subscription price.

According to Wizzard, their top publishers have converted about a quarter of their audience from free, to paid users, with an average app price of $1.99.

“Now, podcasting becomes a platform that converts audiences to revenue, accelerated by the micropayment billing process that Apple has created with the App store,” says Chris Spencer, Wizzard Media CEO. “We believe this new process is the future model for how digital media will be published, audiences grown and revenues derived.”

The updated App was recently approved by Apple and is available for Wizzard’s podcast companion App publishers immediately.

Wizzard today announced that it recorded 1.4 billion podcast download requests in 2009 through its podcast-hosting service Libsyn, or about 16% more than it delivered in 2008.

Libsyn received an average of 3.77 million requests for podcast episodes per day in 2009. On average, 23 minutes per episode equates to almost 1.5 million hours of programming distributed worldwide every day.

“We know there is strong demand for the podcasts we distribute, seeing downloads grow from 400 million to 1.4 billion in the last few years and monthly audiences grow from 4 million to 18 million,” says Laurie Sims, President of Wizzard Media.

“Now, podcasting becomes a platform that converts audiences to revenue, accelerated by the micropayment billing process that Apple has created with the App store. Unlike most Apps in the App store, podcasters have a distinct advantage to successfully market their App in iTunes due to the fact that they have already built a substantial audience for their podcast show over the last several years. Now it is just a matter of continuing to convert them over and expand the model to the Tablet, Andriod and Palm.”

Podcasting network Wizzard Media has announced Usher’s Top 100 (App Store link), an iPhone app featuring 100 of the pop superstar’s favorite songs in a streaming playlist.

The App will sell for $2.99 and the deal calls for a revenue share between the parties.

Usher is a Wizzard Network podcaster.

“iPhone apps are exploding, including for musical artists, but nobody’s done anything like this,” said Dave Dederer, VP of Business Development at Melodeo. “This is the first app that combines a major recording artist, podcast marketing to iTunes consumers and a new model for selling music. Hopefully, this will show the music industry that there are options beyond the old product units of songs, albums and ringtones.”

Wizzards’ announcement is part of their larger push to license iPhone applications and promote them via Wizzard network podcasts.

Podcasting network Wizzard Media has announced that it will be promoting and distributing three more iPHone apps – Word Party, Dietician and Yo Mama.

Wizzard hopes to leverage its podcast distribution network to market the apps in an effort to generate revenue. Wizzard believes this step will put it closer to its goal of profitability. The Company plans to continue to acquire the rights for up to 100 already launched and approved iPhone Apps to provide podcast producers with a continuous stream of relevant, paid advertising for their episodic shows, provide app developers with increased sales revenues and provide for profitable App sales for Wizzard.

“I envision customized Word Party apps for our various participating language and grammar podcasts and targeting the Dietician app to yoga, action sports and other fitness enthusiasts we can reach through the many Health & Fitness podcasts on the Wizzard network,” says Chris Spencer, CEO of Wizzard Media.

Wizzard Media announced today the availability of LibsynPRO 3.0, a new digital media publishing platform designed to give media producers the ability to pick and choose, in an a la carte fashion, media syndication packages to suit their needs.

The LibsynPRO 3.0 digital media publishing system is based around a redesigned publishing engine that is capable of formatting, transcoding and delivering content suited for various destinations. The new platform can publish not only podcast content in iTunes and your site, but to over 20 social video sites, including YouTube, MySpace and Daily Motion.

iPhone App Support

This new platform also lays the groundwork for ‘click-to-build’ customized iPhone application.

Podcasters will be able to turn their shows into interactive iPhone apps, and with standard approvals, sell them in the iTunes App Store.

Details on LibsynPRO 3.0 below.

If you’ve used LibsynPRO 3.0, leave a comment with your thoughts.

Main Features Of LibsynPRO 3.0

• Destination-based publishing engine treats each point of distribution (RSS, iTunes, Zune, Flash Video Player, TubeMogul, Twitter) independently with their own settings and behaviors allowing for schedule controlled distribution, where the media file can be released to specific destinations in a time based sequence.
• Support for an unlimited number of RSS feeds & media players per show and full Integration with (Wizzard) Flash Player Engine, providing access to an advanced Engine for Flash Media publishing on the web in audio and video and an embeddable media player that has its own customer specific attributes and playlists.
• Advertising and Statistics including a new advanced flash based slot selector tool for pinpoint accuracy of ad placement on new and legacy media.

Podcasting network Wizzard Media is expanding it program to promote iPhone apps in podcasts with the acquisition of distribution rights to three new iPhone apps: Word Party, Dietician and Yo Mama.

Wizzard plans to continue to acquire the rights for up to 100 already launched and approved iPhone Apps to provide podcast producers with a continuous stream of relevant, paid advertising for their episodic shows, provide app developers with increased sales revenues and provide for profitable App sales for Wizzard.

Podcasting network Wizzard Media today announced that podcast downloads from their network were up by 45% in Q2, compared to 2008.

For the second quarter of 2009, Wizzard Media saw total network podcast download requests of 350,053,574 vs. 241,600,000 download requests in the second quarter of 2008

The company also reported:

• The audience consuming podcasts from shows on the Wizzard Media Network grew 41% (5.3 million).
• Wizzard Media Network advertising impressions served through its proprietary Alchemy advertising engine grew from 3.9 million in the second quarter of 2008 to 13.7 million in the second quarter of 2009, an increase of 251%.

Podcasting network Wizzard Media today announced that it served over 13,700,000 podcast ad impressions through its Alchemy advertising technology in the quarter ending June 30, 2009. This represents an increase of 251% year-to-year and a 46% increase from the 9.4 million ad impressions served in the first quarter of 2009.

Wizzard Ad Impression History

• 2008 – Q2 – 3.9M
• 2008 – Q3 – 5.5M
• 2008 – Q4 – 8.8M
• 2009 – Q1 – 9.4M
• 2009 – Q2 – 13.7M

“The ease of downloading podcasts directly to your phone or mp3 player through iTunes, is making our market one that has tremendous growth potential,” says Chris Spencer, Wizzard Media CEO.

While the growth is good news for Wizzard, the numbers represent a small fraction of the 1.2 billion podcasts served on the network in 2008.

Podcasting network Wizzard Media today announced plans to distribute iPhone applications, starting with six apps: Blue Attack, OmNomNom, Sudoku Unlimited, TouchScan, Blue Defense and Sudoku Classic.

The move seems like a strange one, at first glance. But Wizzard plans to use its podcast network as an advertising platform to promote the iPhone applications:

Based on current sales figures, Wizzard estimates these Apps will generate over $228,000 in annual revenues, after the standard deduction of Apple’s 30%, for the Company before any increased sales from marketing the Apps via the Wizzard Podcast Network to iPhone and iPod Touch users. Through advertising and marketing by Wizzard’s thousands of podcast producers to their highly engaged audience of iPhone and iPod users, Wizzard believes sales could be significantly higher on an annual basis.

The Company plans to continue to acquire the rights for up to 100 already launched and approved iPhone Apps to provide podcast producers with a continuous stream of fresh, paid advertising for their episodic shows, app developers with increased sales revenues and provide for profitable App sales for Wizzard.

“The simplicity of a consumer hearing about a great App from their favorite podcast and being able to pause the podcast, click to the App store and buy, all on their iPhone, makes us believe that this could be a great success for podcasters app developers and for Wizzard,” says Chris Spencer, Wizzard Media CEO.

“As more people move towards the mobile consumption of podcasts on the iPhone and iPod Touch, Wizzard sees new revenue opportunities opening up for its podcasting business using Apple’s App Store micropayment system,” says Dave Mansueto, co- founder of Liberated Syndication (a Wizzard Media company).