This is part two in our coverage of the Audio Listening in the UK report from London-based UK communications regulator Ofcom, 2025 edition. The survey-based study examines audio listening preferences, needs, and expectations. It is based on a survey field of 3,484 individuals. Part 1 of our coverage is HERE.
The data in this report are credited to Edison Podcast Metrics UK
Podcast Deep Dive
Research into podcasing is divided into a definitional section, the population of UK listeners, and the ways those listeners access podcasts.
The What
“A podcast is commonly defined as audio, and now increasingly video, based content that typically follows an episodic form. It is difficult to characterise much beyond this, as there are few defining features and many variations across the medium. Podcasts vary in length, can explore a variety of topics and can be published, streamed and downloaded by anyone on a range of services.
This variety is in part what makes measuring podcast listening so challenging.” — Ofcom
The Who
Over a fifth of adults listen to podcasts each week, with reach higher among younger people and those in AB socio-economic groups.
Since RAJAR began tracking podcast listening, we’ve seen a slow increase in the proportion of people
listening to them, from just 4% in 2008 to over a fifth of all adults each week (22%) at the start of
2025. Given the shift towards online listening and an increasing number of podcasts being released
by celebrities and established media brands, it is perhaps surprising that podcasts have
comparatively low reach compared to music streaming services. The difference in popularity
between these types of audio bears a similarity to the differences between music and speech radio
listenership. Music radio and streaming are often characterised as a more passive ‘lean-back’
listening experience, where people can easily listen in the background while driving or doing
housework. Speech radio and podcasts, meanwhile, are generally viewed as more of an active ‘leanin’ listen, asking for more of the listener’s attention.
This difference may go some way to explaining the different scale of their listenership, with speech-based audio requiring more focus whereas music listening is more flexible. — Ofcom
The How
People use a range of devices but smartphones are the most frequently used for podcast listening.
While we may tend to think of radio listening as more of lean-back listen or background activity,
playing out loud in spaces with other people around – e.g. in the kitchen and the car, at the
hairdressers or the dentist’s office – as noted above, podcast listening seems to be more of a lean-in,
personal activity. Take devices, for example: podcasts are much more likely to be accessed on
personal devices like smartphones and laptops than on shared devices like smart speakers. Nine in
ten weekly podcast listeners listen on a smartphone, with almost seven in ten (69%) using this
device most often. Half listen on a laptop or desktop and over a third listen on a voice-enabled
speaker (35%), but only 11% and 6% use these as their primary devices for podcast listening
respectively.5 In many ways this is unsurprising, as podcasts have always been distributed, shared
and downloaded via the internet and internet-enabled devices without a dedicated player. This is in
contrast to radio, which can refer to both the audio format and the physical device i.e. the radio set.
In the age of streaming and ‘walled gardens’, where exclusivity is often regarded as key to subscriber
retention, the more interesting question is: which services people are using on these devices?
Audio or Video?
Of those who ever listen to podcasts with video, four in ten say they prefer to listen to podcasts as
audio-only content (41%). However, of the remaining proportion, the majority prefer to watch a
podcast with video if available (29%) while some are happy to play the video in the background but
not actively watch it (23%). People who use YouTube, Amazon and TuneIn to listen to podcasts are
much more likely to prefer actively watching video podcasts than the average listener, while there
was no significant difference in terms of appetite for video for BBC Sounds or Spotify listeners. This is
particularly interesting in the case of Spotify, which has been steadily increasing the type and
amount of video content available to its Premium subscribers in recent years. While not a new idea,
as highlighted by this BBC news article from 2015, the pivot to pushing video highlights the
platform’s desire to hold subscribers’ attention on a screen, which older forms of audio – e.g. radio,
owned recorded music – have not needed. And, according to the results of this survey, is not yet
gaining traction with podcast listeners.
