Years spent listening to podcasts
The Canadian Podcast Listener report details an audience with a strong interest and steady growth for podcasts. RAIN covered details from the summary in October, but now the full report from Audience Insights and Ulster Media is available.
One stat that demonstrates the positive trend for podcasts is how many years respondents have been listening to the audio format. More than 70% of the survey participants started listening to podcasts in the last three years, with 41% who say they only started listening in the past year.
Monthly podcast listeners are tuning into an average of 4.2 episodes a week. The heaviest users within that monthly cohort are men at an average of 4.9 episodes a week and the 18-34 age bracket with 4.8 episodes a week.
More than a quarter of all monthly podcast listeners qualify as “power listeners,” with 12% spending more than 10 hours a week listening and 15% spending between 5-10 hours a week. Another quarter (26%) listens between 2-5 hours a week. Again, men and 18- to 34-year-olds are more likely to be power listeners under that monthly umbrella. Power listeners are also more likely than monthly listeners to spend more time consuming social media, streaming TV, music streaming, print newspapers, and print magazines.
About half of monthly podcast listeners say they’ve taken an action after hearing an ad on a show, with 35% looking to get more information about the company advertised, 15% telling someone else about the product, and 10% making a purchase. The rates are higher across the board for power listeners, with two-thirds taking action as the result of an ad. 46% said they sought more information, 24% told someone else, and 18% made a purchase.
The report also asked specifics about the Canadian podcast industry. Nearly half (47%) either moderately or strongly agree that they want more information about what Canadian podcasts are available. A few local shows made the list of the top 20 podcasts listened to by participants in the past month, including Under the Influence with 3%.