A study into the podcasting habits of a mainly Irish audience was conducted. The survey is to gauge the interest level in on demand radio listening and radio programming from and independent source. The survey also examines how listeners currently share memes within podcasts.
The sample size was 36 respondents.
The questions
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/podcast-podcast
1. Do you listen to podcasts? Yes No
* 2. How many podcasts do you listen to each week?
* 3. How many podcasts are you subscribed to?
4. How many podcasts do you subscribe to but not listen to
5. Do you stream or download your podcasts?
Stream
Download
Both Stream & Download
6. Do you listen tethered to the internet or wire free on a mobile devices?
Online / PC / Website
Sync’d to Mobile Device
Streamed to Mobile
7. Have you listened to Serial podcast?
Yes
No
What is Serial Podcast
8. Does your listening to podcasts reduce your listening time to live radio? Yes No
9. When listening to long podcasts can your player make marker points to reference or share? Yes No
10. When you hear something really interesting in a podcast, how do you share it.
Social Media
Email
Offline recommendation
Other (please specify)
11. Are you listening to less podcasts now than to anytime in the last 12 years? Yes No
12. Are you listening to less RADIO now than to anytime in the last 12 years? Yes No
13. What are your 3 most favourite podcasts?
14. To receive a copy of the survey findings please leave your email
The Results
Do you listen to podcasts? Yes 79% 21% No
excluding the 21% from the remainder of answers
How many podcasts do you listen to each week? Average 8.5 median 4
How many podcasts are you subscribed to? Average 9.4 median 6
How many podcasts do you subscribe to but not listen to? Average 4.66 median 2
Do you stream or download your podcasts?
Stream 7.41%
Download 37.04%
Both Stream & Download 55.56%
Do you listen tethered to the internet or wire free on a mobile devices?
Online / PC / Website 14.81%
Sync’d to Mobile Device 66.67%
Streamed to Mobile 18.52%
Have you listened to Serial podcast?
Yes 40.74%
No 40.74%
What is Serial Podcast? 18.52%
Does your listening to podcasts reduce your listening time to live radio?
Yes 56%
No 44%
When listening to long podcasts can your player make marker points to reference or share?
Yes 30%
No 70%
When you hear something really interesting in a podcast, how do you share it?
Social Media 46.15%
Email 11.54%
Offline recommendation 23.08%
Other 19.23%
Are you listening to less podcasts now than to any time in the last 12 years?
Yes 15%
No 85%
Are you listening to less radio now than to any time in the last 12 years?
Yes 52%
No 48%
Analysis
While heralded as a turning point in podcasting Serial podcast had only been heard by 40% of respondents that listen to podcasts.
Subscriptions to podcasts are greater than podcasts listened to. This isn’t surprising. Some podcasts are less frequent than others. The average difference is 0.9 more subscriptions to listens. With the irregularity of some podcasts it would appear that listeners are not subscribed to enough podcasts to meet their listening habits. When asked about how many podcasts they were subscribed to but not listening to the median answer was 2.
Downloading is 5 times greater than streaming, but a combination of both is 56% of the sample. Syncing podcasts to a mobile device is 67% of the sample, only 15% of podcast listens are on a PC. Mobile has 85% of the podcast market.
This is significant, making chaptering work on mobile will be paramount for the creation and usage sides of chaptering.
Almost 50% of these podcast listeners say they are listening to less radio than some time in the last 12 years. This is not a good omen for radio. 85% say they are not listening to less podcasts now versus the past.
30% of those surveyed claim their player can create a reference point. This is possible with soundcloud but the marker is not a replay point.
Twice as many would share a podcast on social media versus offline sharing. In today’s sharing digital media world sharing is vital to the propagation of popular media. While many mobile devices use APPS which are digital cul-de-sacs the general podcast player market is varied and the lacks a common approach to annotation and chapter points.
The general move is away from PC to mobile (it can be argued that this move is not complete). Wifi and 4G are the data stream of choice on mobiles. Streaming is growing as downloading is in decline. When streaming is dominant the player is the choice of the platform provider versus the choice of the listener. This is good for the centralising of new tools for sharing and chaptering.
Beginning spring 2016 Audible a leading player in spoken word entertainment is allowing its subscribers share with friends any 45 seconds of audio from any title.
http://www.wired.com/2016/03/audibles-new-sharing-tool-tries-make-audio-social/
BBC Radio 4 is finding an after market for its best bits of weekly radio with a clipping service http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00yp2rh
And in South America http://uk.radiocut.fm/ are allowing people to cut up their own radio clips and share them.