I'm attending the Corporate Podcasting Summit. Charlene Li of Forrester Research started off the conference and provided some interesting numbers about who's listening to podcasts. Here's a summary:
Overall, 6% of people in North American are listening to podcasts. (In asking this survey question, Forrester did not define what a “podcast” is.). The average age of the podcast listener is 41. One quarter of the 6% listen for about 1 hour a day.
Of the people who categorize themselves as "tech optimists" – 77% listen to podcasts weekly; 77% listen less than weekly (conclusion: listeners are optimistic and technophiles)
Generally, youth listen more frequently:
Of adults 18 years and older: 8% listen daily, 21% listen few times/week; 71% listen less than weekly
Of youth ages 12-21: 12% listen daily, 29% listen few times/week; 59% listen less than weekly
One survey Q from 9/2005 (which is being re-asked by Forrester this month): What kind of audio content do you currently use or are most interested in using via podcasts?
Internet radio – 39%
Radio – 23%
Broadcast radio - 20%
Recorded books - 19%
TV news - 18%
Recorded news/magazine articles - 10%
Audio content from bloggers - 8%
None of the above – 38%
Charlene commented at the end that there may be some "over-hype" about the use of podcasts. While she's an optimist, she takes the enthusiasm with a "big grain of salt". The numbers are still in the single digits. Podcasting needs to be made easier for the average user to adopt this way of receiving media.