Report: Podcast Growth Continues but Concept Still Poorly Defined

About 11 percent of broadband users in the US, or 12 million consumers, listen to podcasts at least once a month, according to a survey by The Diffusion Group (TDG), a research and professional services firm. 16 percent have listened to a podcast at some point. 54 percent of respondents use a portable device and on average those users listen to 5.4 podcasts per month. Overall 70 percent rely on iTunes to access podcasts.

The report predicts that the number of podcast listeners will swell to 24 percent of broadband users in 2012, or 38.5 million Americans. Yet the report also notes that in spite of the continuous increase of podcast listeners, podcasting is still considered too complex and the quality and quantity of content available for podcast consumption is not estimated.

“Despite the fact that the Oxford University Press selected ‘podcast’ as Word of the Year in 2005, most consumers have a very poor understanding of the medium or the variety of content available for consumption by podcast,” said Dale Gilliam III, author of the report. This lack of understanding, notes Gilliam, is due primarily to the multiplicity of ways in which pundits and marketers have used the term.

“At the end of the day, the way consumers come to understand a new medium such as podcasting will strongly determine the types of experiences and value they attribute to the concept. When those in the business of articulating and promoting this new medium use language inconsistently, the power of the concept to attract and engage users is diluted.”