Podcasts Boost Radio Audiences, Says UK Industry Researcher
All of the RAJAR-commissioned data reported in this Guardian article is pretty good news for the humble podcast, with one exception: “Although podcasts were popular with listeners, media organisations have found difficulty turning them into significant moneyspinners”.
Agreed - media organisations, with top-down attitudes and old-media thinking continue to invest in podcasting as part of their new media landgrab, without adopting new models for monetization, and without investing time and energy into the relationships that will make podcasting work outside its place as an adjunct to their existing broadcast or publishing output.
Meanwhile, many small to medium-sized businesses and institutions, unhampered by large overheads and “old media” attitudes, continue to find enterprising ways to employ podcasting and to generate revenue from podcasting, using both B2B and B2C models, dosed liberally with the old fashioned “let’s try things out and see what works” methodology.
“According to the survey, 6 million people in the UK have now downloaded a podcast - up from 4.3 million in November 2007. And 3.7 million now say they listen to a podcast each week, up from 1.87 million in last year’s survey.
The average podcast user subscribes to 3.6 podcasts and spends just over an hour a week listening to them. Comedy and music continue to be the two favourite genres.
iTunes remains the preferred software for almost three-quarters of users who subscribe to podcasts, while a fifth simply download directly from the website via their browser.
According to the survey, 79% of people listen to podcasts on their home computer and 66% listen via a portable audio/mp3 player.
Podcasting appears to also have a marginally positive effect on live radio listening. Almost 15% said they listened to more live radio since they began downloading podcasts.
While 10% stated they listened to less live radio after starting to download podcasts, 39% said they were now listening to radio programmes they did not listen to previously.” (Guardian)
Download the research PDF here.
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