Since he began his new podcast at the beginning of this month, Bill Simmons has found no shortage of fans. In fact, anyone who thought the new edition of his podcast would not be successful without ESPN’s promotion is deadly wrong. Digiday reports that the Bill Simmons podcast was downloaded almost four million times through mid-month making it the most popular sports podcast on iTunes and 14th-most popular.
The fact many of his fans moved to his new podcast tells you that they are loyal to Simmons and willing to follow him to any platform. And it bodes well for his new online venture which will include some former Grantland writers and his upcoming HBO show.
Simmons regularly promotes his podcast on his Twitter account which has over 4.7 million followers and you can be sure that he’ll promote it on HBO as well. Unlike his ESPN podcast, Simmons is making money off this edition and advertisers are flocking to it as well.
So as long as the downloads keep coming, the numbers for the Simmons podcast should surpass those of the ESPN B.S. Podcast which was successful in its own right.
The success of the Simmons podcast goes to show that there can be life after ESPN especially if the personality has a name and brand that can stand on its own and certainly Simmons has proven that in the month that he has established new episodes.
[Digiday]
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