What’s A Podcast and Why Should You Listen to Them?

Nov 30, 2018

We were in the studio today with News Director, Dylan Nicholls for The River 95.3 to talk about podcasts. Dylan and I host a weekly podcast - Another Look - where we recap the news from the week in a bit more detail than what is normally allowed on the air. We talked about what a podcast is, who the average listener is and how often and where they listen and discussed the new initiative for 2019 focusing on digital marketing and podcast productions for The River 95.3 advertisers and the benefit to having an longer conversation with potential customers. We also shared a few podcasts that we listen to on a regular basis. We referenced several stats during the show, and our show notes are below. If you're interested in starting a podcasting series for your business, contact me via email: janet@theriver953.com; via text: 540-635-4121 or call the station at 540-635-4121. Podcasts are the “Netflix” for radio. Radio on demand with topics you want to know about. Conversations you want to hear. Lessons you want to learn. Whenever & wherever you want to listen. April 2018: Over 525,000 active shows and over 18.5 million episodes

• 64% of the US population is familiar with the term “podcasting” – up from 60% in 2017 (Infinite Dial 18)
• 50% of all US homes are podcast fans (Nielsen, Aug 2017)
• 44% (124 million) of the US population has listened to a podcast – up from 40% in 2017 (Infinite Dial 18)
• 26% (73 million) listen to podcasts at least every month – up from 24% in 2017 (Infinite Dial 18)
• 17% (48 million) listen to podcasts weekly – up from 15% in 2017
• 16 million people in the US are “avid podcast fans” (Nielsen Q1 2018)
• 56% of podcast listeners are Male
• 45% of monthly podcast listeners have household income over $75K – vs 35% for the total population
• 49% of podcast listening is done at home, down from 51% in 2017
• 22% listen while driving (in a vehicle), same as 2017
• Podcast listeners subscribe to an average of 6 shows
• Podcast listeners listen to an average of 7 different shows per week, up from 5 in 2017
• 80% listen to all or most of each episode, down from 86% in 2017
• 65% of monthly podcast listeners have been listening for less than 3 years
• Comedy is the most popular podcasting genre, followed by education and news
• Podcast listeners are more likely to follow companies and brands on social media
• Podcast listeners are more likely to subscribe to Netflix or Amazon Prime (meaning they are less likely to be exposed to TV advertising)
• Podcast listeners are more likely to own a smart speaker
• 51% of bottled water households are podcast listeners; 57% of baby foodhouseholds; 53% of beer households; 56% of juice households; 54% of milk households; 54% of cereal households
• 69% agreed that podcast ads made them aware of new products or services