Digital radio: The very elusive promise of podcasting
Everyone agrees the medium shows promise, and advertisers are thronging
February 3, 2017
By the editors of Media Life
This is one in a number of stories on digital radio in Media Life’s ongoing series. You can subscribe to the series here or see previous stories here.
If you look across the wide spectrum of digital radio and all its offerings, there’s one that stands out as somehow different, and that is podcasting.
Everybody talks about it. It’s popping up everywhere. Everyone’s either doing it, or talking about doing it.
That certainly true for media, from The New York Times to NPR, who’s “Serial” became the very first podcast hit.
Advertisers are embracing podcasts to reach highly desirable audiences, and they’re putting out their own podcasts to speak directly to their consumers. We’re seeing podcast press releases. Podcasts are easier to do than webinars, less prone to glitches, which makes them a great teaching tools as well.
The podcast has clearly entered the media mainstream, and the range of its uses can only grow.
There’s just one problem. Unlike these other areas of digital radio, podcast listening has yet to take off, and there’s a real question as to when and if it ever will.
We just don’t know.
One of the aims of this Media Life series on digital radio is to examine what forces might come into play to push up podcast listening.
For now, though, here’s a look at what we do actually know about podcast listeners. (All data from Scarborough Research unless otherwise noted.)
They are a relatively small group
According to Scarborough Research, just 25 percent of the population listened to a podcast in the past 30 days.
While that’s a big increase over just a few years ago – Edison Research and Triton Digital put the number at 8 percent in 2008 – that still means three in four Americans do not listen to podcasts.
By contrast, 39 percent listen to their local stations online; 49 percent listen to internet feeds from iHeartRadio, Radio.com and others; and 69 percent listen to online music from Last.fm, Spotify and others.
They skew male
Fifty-eight percent of podcast listeners are male. Overall digital audio listeners are just 51 percent male.
They are young
Three-quarters of podcast devotees are under the age of 49, including 37 percent who are Millennials.
This is important and explains why advertisers are so interested in this group of listeners despite its relatively small size. It’s become more and more difficult for advertisers to connect with young men through traditional media, so they’re desperate to find alternative ways to reach them. Podcasting offers just such a means.
They are educated and employed
Forty percent graduated from college, and podcast listeners are 69 percent more likely to be attending college right now than the average person. The majority hold a full-time blue- or white-collar job.
They include many Hispanics
The majority of podcast listeners are white.
However, Hispanics are 10 percent more likely to listen to podcasts than the average adult. African Americans are just slightly more likely.
They don’t have kids
The majority, 62 percent, are childless, which reflects their relatively young skew. This is something else advertisers like about them – no kids often means more disposable income.
They are affluent
Twenty-eight percent of podcast listeners have household incomes above $100,000, with 4 percent above $250,000.
They are active and healthy
The majority describe their health as excellent or very good, and no wonder – they are more likely than the average adult to swim, bike, jog and play team sports such as basketball and soccer.
Tags: digital radio, digital radio listeners, digital radio series, podcasting, podcasting listeners, podcasting stats
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