Edison Research, a survey research company, recently published a report called “Why Podcasting Is Bigger Than You Think.” This report expands on the “Share of Ear” survey conducted earlier this year, where Edison reported that approximately 2% of all daily audio consumption is devoted to podcasts. And while on its face, that 2% value may seem insignificant, Edison explains:
In Edison’s recent edition of our Share of Ear study, we released a graph showing that nearly 2% of the total time spent listening to audio was devoted to podcast listening. There were some who may have seen that figure and thought it small. It is not small. Certainly, as a “share” of audio, you can compare it to the share of a popular television show and see straight away that we are talking about significant consumption. But we also have to look at the fact that podcasts are not consumed by 100% of Americans (even if they were, by the way, a 1.7% share of ear would still be remarkable). In fact, if we deduct the persons from this statistic who don’t listen to podcasts, we get a very notable figure indeed.