Canadian Survey on Podcasting

The internet bubble demonstrated that market research and forward-looking adoption rates are the favorite tools of interested parties, who stand to gain in some way by publishing outrageous “uptake” numbers.

The following survey, however, looks at the current status of podcasting in Canada and raises many interesting qualitative points:

1. More than 50% of Canadian listeners are women

2. 59% of Canadian listeners are between the age of 25-44. 85% are older than 24. There appears to be a large group of listeners who do not fall into the “young, early-adopter” category, but who are somewhat older.

3. 77% of Canadians claimed to be familiar or somewhat familiar with the term podcasting.

4. Half of the Top 10 podcasts originate from outside Canada (from the U.S. and UK.). This statistic is consistent with findings in the UK and Australia.

5. 69% of respondents prefer original content that can not be found elsewhere.

6. Almost half the respondents want to listen to their favorite podcast only once a week. 35% preferred podcasts up to 10 minutes long, and 52% preferred podcasts up to 20 minutes long. Only 16% preferred podcasts 30+ minutes long.

7. 66% of listeners are comfortable with hearing one or two ads in a podcast.

The survey was conducted by Sequentia Communications and Caprica Interactive Marketing. The main purpose of the survey was to gain information about the views Canadian adults have on podcasting. This survey was conducted in mid-2006 and 97% of the 928 respondents identified themselves as Canadian. The full survey can be viewed here.