US Podcasting Sweet Spot = 45+

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by: Alain Thys

A survey of 8000 American consumers by research company CLX is giving us a few more numeric data on the actual amount of people listening to podcasts.  In summary, the numbers are:

  • on average 15% of those surveyed have actually listened to a podcast
  • for those over 45 this percentage increases to 21%
  • for those 15-24, the number drops to only 13%

As the survey was conducted via mobile phone, the audience was probably not representative for the average American, yet the most interesting feature is of course that older audiences are more podcast oriented than the stereotype MP3-loving teenagers.

Rather than come to premature conclusions on this that podcasting is not for the young (as the researchers tend to do), in my opinion this makes perfect sense as:

  • podcasting is not only MP3-player based … it's radio on demand which can work on any device.  Also, if demographics are comparable to those in Europe, it is actually the 30-49 year olds driving the technology movement.
  • Let's face it: most of the podcasts out there are not really of the type that your average 17 year old gets really excited about. 

That's why, for me the important number is that the podcast penetration numbers keep growing and are hitting 15% in somewhat representative surveys.

Looks like the tipping point for the market is approaching.

via: VNU

Original Post: http://alainthys.blogging.com/blog/_archives/2005/8/21/1156317.html