The Numbers — Podcast Listenership
As reported by ITG Group, there was an estimated 11 million podcast listeners expected by the end of 2006. This will increase to 22 million by 2007, 33 million in 2008 and 58 million in 2010 demonstrating the fastest growing media format today and proving that podcasting is here to stay. Furthermore, with the June 28th, 2005 release of Apple Computer’s iTunes 4.9, over 40 million iPod listeners were given free and easy access to podcasts. (To date, the number of iPod users is now 100 million.)
When one combines the increasing listenership demonstrated above, with a quality of listener (read: targeted) that cannot be duplicated in any other advertising medium (TV, print, radio), it is no wonder forward-thinking corporations like Disney, GE, Oracle, General Motors, Polycom, Interwoven, IBM and Whirlpool have embraced this communication method as a powerful sales and marketing tool.
| YEAR | ITG Group | BridgeRatings |
| 2006 | 11 Million | 6-11 Million |
| 2007 | 22 Million | 14-25 Million |
| 2008 | 33 Million | 22-39 Million |
| 2010 | 58 Million | ~63 Million |
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The 2006 numbers are further verified by Podtrac’s December 2005 survey that indicated 22,616,766 people have ever listened to a podcast and that 9,404,992 have done so in the last seven days.
In early 2008, Wizzard Media, the owners of several podcast networks, announced they had delivered one billion podcast downloads in 2007.
In April 2008, there were two other reports about the momentum behind podcasting.
How Do People Listen?
| Portable Player | Computer | PSP/Pocket PC |
| 56%* | 41%* | 3%* |
| 25%** | 75%** | 0%** |
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* Source: March 2006 PodTrac Audience Insight Survey
** Source: April 2008 Arbitron/Edison Media Research
Percentage of Episode Listenership
| Entire Show | 75% | 50% |
| 88% | 11% | 1% |
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Source: March 2006 PodTrac Audience Insight Survey
Top Five Important Podcast Attributes (out of scale of 10)
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| Content | 9.32 |
| Overall Quality | 8.81 |
| Host(s) | 8.73 |
| Audio Quality | 8.28 |
| Reliability* | 7.88 |
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*New episodes available when promised.
Source: March 2006 PodTrac Audience Insight Survey
