Podcast Audience Up By 70% In 6 Months

Nov 23rd, 2006 | By | Category: Audio Podcasting, Podcasting Research, Podcasting Statistics, Video Podcasts

According to researchers at the Pew Internet Project (PDF), the audience for podcasts has increased by over 70% in six months.

12% of Internet users say they have downloaded a podcast so they can listen to it or view it at a later time. This compares to 7% of Internet users who reported podcast downloading in their last survey.

While the audience for podcasts is rapidly growing, the percent of Internet users downloading podcasts daily is just 1% of those surveyed.

Men are more likely than women to report podcast downloading; 15% of online men say they have downloaded a podcast, compared with just 8% of online women. And those who have used the Internet for six or more years are twice as likely as those who have been online three years or less to have downloaded a podcast (13% vs. 6%).


These results come from a nationally-representative telephone survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project from August 1 – August 31 of 2,928 adults. The portion of the survey that covered podcast downloading was administered to 972 Internet users. The margin of error on the internet sample is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Pew attributes the increase to an explosion in the range of content available as podcasts, the proliferation of portable media players and the fact that podcasts have become more accessible to to average users.

Pew surveyed all Internet users, and worded their questions to try and capture the activity of both portable media player users and people that only use podcasts on their computers.

No Responses to “Podcast Audience Up By 70% In 6 Months”

  1. I think that podcasts are the next big thing on the net, and why not. Life Coaches such as Brian Tracy call it university on wheels. Turning your car into a mobile learning zone, a university!

    It’s a great addition to the net. I remember reading an article about most of podcasts are listened to on there pc’s. I will post that article addy when I find it again.

    So is podcasts going to be the thing of 1997?

  2. […] Als we beginnen bij het begin dan staat het onderzoek van Pew bovenaan deze berichtenketen. Het gaat te ver om de uitkomst van dit onderzoek weer eens te beschrijven, echter geconcludeerd mag worden dat Pew komt met een positief geluid: Het gebruik van podcasts is groeiende! Dit is dan ook wat BusinessWeek beschrijft in haar artikel. […]

  3. […] Xbox Users Calling Video Marketplace A Nightmare According to initial reviews of the Xbox Live Video Marketplace, Apple won’t have to worry about Microsoft’s iTunes Store-killer for the near future. The Microsoft movie download service is apparently struggling under the weight of all that high-definition content. Some people are reporting extraordinarily long download times, and others report being charged for videos they did […] Podcast Audience Up By 70% In 6 Months According to researchers at the Pew Internet Project (PDF), the audience for podcasts has increased by over 70% in six months. 12% of Internet users say they have downloaded a podcast so they can listen to it or view it at a later time. This compares to 7% of Internet users who reported podcast downloading in […] by Ryan Bradshaw in Podcasting News […]

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