snipped from http://peterchen.members.grokthis.net/research
a number of interesting relationships between audience size and show characteristics are examined. Some key findings include:
* Episode frequency exerts a strong influence on audience size, with the release of daily episodes demonstrating the highest average audience size. Presently, most shows are produced on a weekly basis,
* There are few specific production-side determinants on popularity (including production time per episode), with the exception of collaborative shows, where there is a significant positive correlation between the number of staff or collaborators and show popularity, and
* There appears to be an emerging negative relationship within the podcasting production community between the prevalence of shows in some genres and lower average audience sizes. While this relationship is not significant, it may indicate that the market in some genres is saturating and further efforts need to be undertaken to expand the overall size of the market.
In the final discussion, some additional comments are provided on issues of copyright and other legal concerns, policy considerations to address gender inequality, and questions associated with definitional inspecificity.