In April, we reported on Arbitron/Edison Media Research’s latest report on the podcast audience. 

At the time, we were struck by their stats for the podcast audience, which showed that the audience for audio podcasts grew 38% in the last year, and the audience for video podcasts grew 45%.

Edison’s Tom Webster also has offered his take on the implications of the report, The Podcast Consumer Revealed 2008 (pdf). 

Highlights of his analysis include:

• Podcasting is a viable alternative means to target attractive consumers who are otherwise proving difficult to reach with traditional advertising. Consumers who go through the process of selecting a program (rather than passively consuming whatever is on traditional media), downloading it and potentially moving it to a portable device are exhbiting an increased level of engagement with the programs and hosts of the shows they select. This engagement may translate to an increased credibility and level of trust in the show’s sponsors and advertisers. 
• Podcast consumers are extremely attractive advertising targets, though difficult to reach via traditional interruption models. Podcast users are far more likely to have attained at least a college degree, and are also more likely to live in households earning in excess of $75,000 per year, than Americans who have not consumed podcasts. Furthermore, Americans who have watched or listened to a podcast are more frequent online shoppers and spend more money online than other Americans. Podcast listeners and viewers are also far more likely to block pop-up ads, SPAM, and use non-traditional means to view television.
• Podcast consumers are heavily involved with social networking. Over a quarter of persons 12+ who have ever consumed an audio/video podcast have a profile on MySpace, and the percentage of podcast consumers with profiles on other social networking sites is significantly higher than the percentage of non-podcast consumers. Podcast consumers also spend markedly more time on the Internet every day than the average American.