Podtrac, a leader in connecting podcasters and advertisers, today announced the availability of the first on-line advertising auction to determine ad rates for the podcasting market.

“Both Podtrac’s individual podcast advertising buys and podcast advertising auction will assist the market in determining the ad rates for podcasting, which is a market barrier to date, because podcasters and advertisers can not plan advertising, revenues, or expenses without rates,” said Mark McCrery, Podtrac’s Co-Founder and CEO. “Advertisers need predictability as they plan to reach consumers and business decision makers through the highly targeted podcast medium.”

Advertising positions for three top-ranked iTunes podcasts will be auctioned beginning today. They include a leading technology podcast This Week in Technology and leading entertainment podcasts MuggleCast and Josh & Japan. The online auction starts today and will end on March 31, 2006. Media Kits for these podcasts are available as a result of the Podtrac Survey to their individual podcast audiences.

Podtrac also announced that hundreds of leading podcasts and top podcast networks are available to advertisers through Podtrac. Leading podcasts include those currently or recently in the iTunes Top 100 such as: Channel Frederator, Comedy 365, Distorted View, Escape Pod, Flash TV, French Maid TV, IndieFeed, Inside Mac, MuggleCast, Josh in Japan, Next Big Hit, This Week in Tech, VOD Cars and more.

Podtrac also announced partnerships with largest podcast networks including: Association of Music Podcasting, Technology Podcast Network, and the Teen Podcast Network.