Survey: Many podcast listeners are switching away from radio

At the recent Worldwide Radio Summit, radio marketing and research company Nuvoodoo presented new research on podcasting. The company has shared data from two recent surveys about podcast listenership. For the overall population, 9.5% of respondents spend at least one hour a day listening to podcasts. Certain demographics reported heavier use of the audio format, most notably men aged 25-34 with 21.7% listening daily for at least an hour. The other top groups with at least an hour time spent listening were men aged 35-44 at 14.2% and men aged 18-24 at 12.9%.

According to the participants, the shift to more podcast listening is coming from terrestrial radio. Two-thirds (66.4%) said they listen to less FM radio since they’ve been listening to podcasts. Personal music was the second most-common response at 39.4%, followed by AM radio at 37.9%. Sirius XM has also lost listeners to podcasts, posting 29.7%.

The data from NuVoodoo combined its Ratings Prospects Study with nearly 5,700 respondents and its Nationwide Podcast Study with nearly 3,000 respondents. The trend of increased podcast listening echoed arcs seen in the latest Infinite Dial results. The podcast audience is still growing, and although it’s a small share of overall audio now, the dedication level is high among people who like the format.