In the Spring edition of the Podcast Download report produced by Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights, consumer research platform Quantilope was commissioned to survey weekly podcast consumers. The study was fielded in April, and digs into eight key questions:
- What is the profile of weekly and heavy podcast consumers?
- How are Podcast Newcomers (started listening in past year) distinct from Podcast Pioneers (4+ years)?
- Do podcast consumers go back and listen to the back catalogue of episodes?
- Platform usage: What are the latest shifts in preferred platform? How does that vary by segment?
- Podcasts with video: What are consumer preferences? To what extent do they watch or listen to them?
- How interested are podcast consumers in engaging and interacting with their favorite hosts and podcasts?
- How engaged are podcast consumers with ad-free video streaming services?
- Advertiser Perceptions: What is the current state of podcast advertising consideration and usage?
Watchful
The subject of watching podcasts is of key interest in every survey study we receive these days. This one distills its intelligence on that subject into six essential points:
- YouTube is not a walled garden of podcasts: 72% of weekly podcast consumers who have consumed podcasts on YouTube say they would switch platforms from YouTube if a podcast were to become available only on another platform. 51% of YouTube podcast consumers say they already have listened to the same podcasts they consume on YouTube in another place.
- YouTube is the leading podcast platform for the third year, but no single platform dominates: Continued interest in video podcasts keeps YouTube ahead of Spotify as the most used platform. However, a diverse ecosystem of podcast platforms means no single one captures a majority as most used.
- Watchable podcasts have grown in popularity: Driven by Podcast Newcomers, more consumers prefer podcasts with video they can actively watch or minimize to listen in the background vs. podcasts that are just audio.
- Podcast Discovery: YouTube is the place to be found: YouTube acts as an entertainment search engine. 44% of weekly podcast consumers who listened to a new podcast in the past 6 months started listening to their latest podcast on YouTube.
- Audio remains the primary mode of consumption, despite the growing option of video: Podcasts are unique among other media platforms, offering flexible multimedia opportunities. Podcast consumers have the option to either watch or listen, and the vast majority continue to choose to listen.
- With the rise of podcast watching, smart TVs are big for podcast consumption: A third of consumers are using a smart TV for podcasts, which is only outranked by smartphones
Even with intense focus on Youtube, one vital point is that only four percent of respondents said they only watch podcasts. But that number is a sharp divergence from six previous surveys in this series, as illustrated below:
Levels
This research breaks up the podcast audience into three levels of experience:
- Podcast Pioneers (started 4+ years ago)
- Podcast Intermediates (2-3 years ago)
- Podcast Newcomers (past year)
We also learn that Pioneers spend more time, and consume more episodes. Podcast newcomers are more female, and more likely to be Hispanic.
Thirty-four percent of Americans are weekly consumers, and 55% of them listen to 6+ hours per week, and consume an average of 4.3 episodes across 3.1 different shows.
This section contains abundant detail about listening behaviors.
YouTube Gets High
In one compelling graphic, Podcast Download reveals the steady popularity climb of YouTube over nearly six years:
In another graph, we learn that YouTube’s growth in listenership has taken share from Spotify and Apple.
There is substantial detail around demographics in each major listening service, share of time listening by age, share of audience among listening devices, appetite for new podcasts, and the primacy of content over platform.
This study is not afraid of granularity; we learn for example about listening metrics connected to YouTube thumbnail images.
Watchability and Advertiser Misperception
We end our (cursory) coverage of this deep and detailed study with an interesting comparison: How the audience prefers to consume podcasts vs. how advertisers (wrongly) think they do. This is fascinating to us, as we present below the double graphic which tells the story. (The entire deck is freely available HERE.)
