ABC’s 2019 Podcast Survey was presented at Australia’s premier podcast industry conference OzPod. The Survey revealed essential findings for Australian podcasters on how to reach more listeners.

The survey revealed that Australian podcast listeners are very engaged. For those who listened to a podcast in the previous week, an average of six podcast episodes were listened to.

However, when it comes to choosing podcasts, listeners have declared that they are inundated with choice. The research shows that 1 in 2 podcast listeners (51%), claim to be overwhelmed by the increasing choice of podcasts available in a growing marketplace.

The ABC podcast survey, completed by more than 2,500 podcast listeners, also offered the following insights into podcast listeners and their behavior:

• Podcast listeners also revealed they prefer original content rather than catch-up radio podcasts, with the majority (76%) of episodes listened to in the past month being original podcasts.
• Podcast listeners continue to be driven by audio that entertains, teaches, or informs them.
• Comedy podcasts appeal more to a younger audience (14-34) while Society and Culture and Health and Lifestyles appeal more to an older audience (55+).
• Word of mouth is the number 1 means of discovering new podcasts. But when choosing between options, listeners are most motivated to try new podcasts from the Episode Descriptions (including Healthline, 71%) and Recommendations (70%).
• ‘At Home’ remains the most common location for podcast listening (76%), although a large proportion of podcast listeners aged between 14-34 are listening to podcasts while they are out and about.