Podcast business suffers when fewer commute
The podcast business has suffered from the pandemic, if the Reuters Institute at Oxford University is right. In a recent report, the institute says growth in podcasts has slowed indicating it has suffered when people had to stay at home and not were commuting. The boom in audio over the last few years has included fast growing number of podcasts, many of them published by established news media.
September 30 has since 2013 been called International Podcast Day but after some years celebrating the day with hundreds of live streamings, the Podcast Day team is no longer creating such an event.
In the annual report on digital news media, Reuters Institute says Growth in podcasts has slowed, in part due to the impact of restrictions on movement adding that this is despite some high-profile news launches and more investment via tech platforms.
”Our data show Spotify continuing to gain ground over Apple and Google podcasts in a number of countries and YouTube also benefiting from the popularity of video-based and hybrid podcasts.”
Statista Global Consumer Survey shows Sweden is the number 1 out of 54 countries when it comes to podcast consumption podcast consumption, with 47 per cent of respondents saying they listened to at least one podcast in the last 12 months.
Sweden is followed by Ireland and Brazil that both report more than 40 per cent having listened to podcasts. During the last 12 months.
”In the UK (31%) and the US (34%), about a third of respondents are podcast listeners, while countries in the Eastern hemisphere score comparatively lower. China has 19 per cent share of podcast listeners while Japan reports only 5%.
In 2019, the Reuters Institute noted the fast growing interest in podcasts reporting the number of news podcasts globally rose by almost 12,000 between January and October 2019 – an increase of 32%, News Podcasts and the Opportunities for Publishers.
“Talk and interview shows are the most popular sub-genre within news, along with one-off narrative series, but daily news has become an increasingly important focus.”
The report identified almost 60 daily news podcasts in five countries studied (US, UK, Australia, France and Sweden). The report´s lead author Nic Newman said:
“Bigger audiences, better measurement and easier access have combined to change the economics of news podcasting. In turn this is encouraging publishers to invest in creating more quality content, and platforms to invest in better distribution and monetisation, in a virtuous circle of growth.”
In the 2021 report, the institute is less optimistic saying growth has slowed, at least partly explained by the lack of commuters during the pandemic.
The word podcast seems to have been first mentioned in 2004. The origin is unclear. It is believed to be either created by the combination of the words “Ipod” and “broadcast” or of “Portable on demand (pod)” and “broadcast” and described as an ”episodic series of spoken word audio files – available for downloads or streaming.”
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