Podcast Statistics

In May 2009, The RAJAR Measurement of Internet Delivered Audio Services (MIDAS 4) was conducted by Ipsos MORI.  The survey found that 7.8 million people in the UK have downloaded a podcast – up from 6 million in May 2008, which is an increase of 30% in a year.  4.2 million said they had listened to a podcast at least once a week – up from 3.7 the previous year. 

The typical podcast listener subscribes to 5.2 podcasts per week – up from 4.4 podcasts in October 2008 survey.  77% of podcast listeners will listen to content that is more than a week old.   Less than 5% of podcast listeners have ever paid for a podcast.  59% responded positively to downloading podcasts containing advertising if they were free, however only 31% of respondents liked the idea of podcasts without adverts that had to be paid for.

iTunes still continues to be the preferred software with nearly 70% of podcast listeners subscribing to podcasts, whilst 16% simply download directly from a website.  A total of 76% listen to podcasts on their home computer and 64% listen via a portable mp3 player.