Podcast Audience To Double In Next Two Years

The US audience for podcasts will more than double in the next two years, growing from 6.5 million (active weekly downloaders) in 2007 to 14 million in 2009.

According to a new report by eMarketer

• The total US podcast audience reached 18.5 million in 2007;
• The total audience will increase by 251% to 65 million in 2012;
• There are currently 6.5 million people that download one or more podcasts per week; and
• In five years, there will be 25 million active podcast downloaders.

As The Podcast Audience Grows, Advertisers Will Follow

”As the US podcasting industry matures it is unquestionably creating a listening audience,” says Paul Verna, eMarketer Senior Analyst. “Along with a larger audience comes increases in advertising spending tied to podcasts.”

US spending on podcast-related advertising (including sponsorships) will rise to $435 million in 2012, up from $165 million in 2007:

Verna identifies a number of factors driving the growth of the podcast-user base:

• Greater ease of consumption for podcast content
• Growing awareness of podcasting
• Terrestrial radio‚Äôs use and promotion of podcasting
• Increased penetration of portable players
• The evolution of smart phones and proliferation of affordable mobile data plans

While eMarketer’s podcasting statistics paint a rosy picture for podcasts, they actually appear to be based on a fairly limited idea of podcasting (radio-style audio podcasts). We’re checking into this with eMarketer to see if we can get clarification on this.

     

This entry was posted on Monday, February 4th, 2008 at 10:31 pm and is filed under Podcasting Research, Podcasting Statistics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.