Voxnest explores most popular listening times by podcast category

Voxnest has been publishing several analyses about different corners of podcast listening, and the latest one is about show categories. The company’s new report finds that listening habits vary across different show subjects, which could mean different best practices for podcasters in terms of publishing times and time-specific advertisements. The report looked at the five most popular categories for the U.S. and for Europe as measured in the Voxnest Audience Network.

In the U.S., religion podcasts were most often listened to between 6 am and 8 am. Culture shows are most popular between 7 am and 10 am. Sports echoed the same time window as religion. History and News & Information were more popular in the evening hours. History was most popular the in 7 pm to 9 pm range and news led between 5 pm and 8 pm.

Business is the leading podcast category in Europe, and while the single most popular hour was 7 am, the most popular window was 4 pm to 6 pm. As in the U.S., culture led in the mornings between 6 am and 8 am. Psychology was also a morning leader, topped by 7 am to 9 am. History mimicked the U.S. result again, most popular from 4 pm to 6 pm, and education podcasts had the same top window of listening.

Voxnest deemed 7 am and 9 pm the most consistently top performing hours in the U.S., while Europe’s were 7 am and 5 pm. The company suggested that clearer understandings of when listeners tune in to different categories, even broad ones, could help publishers guide their marketing plans.