Dave Van Dyke at Bridge Ratings has been very smart over the past year, tracking important radio trends and grabbing informative headlines, and his latest study proves that Podcasting needs to be a part of your strategy. They create listening for your station at times folks otherwise would not be listening to radio.
* The study estimates that 4.8 million persons have at some time during 2005 downloaded a podcast from either a radio station or other source. iTunes was referrenced as the most often accessed portal for podcast downloads. This 4.8 million estimate is up from 820,000 podcast users in 2004.
* Growth in this nascent industry will accelerate quickly due to the rapid acceptance of the technology by the radio broadcast industry in 2005 and Apple's iTunes distribution. The study reveals that two different metrics define the podcast user universe: Weekly users and those that have ever downloaded and listened to a podcast.
* By 2010 podcast audience growth is expected to reach a conservative 45 million users who will have ever listened to a podcast. Aggressive estimates place this number closer to 75 million by this date.
* The study shows that currently approximately 20% of users who have ever downloaded and listened to a podcast do so on a weekly basis. This group downloads an average of six podcasts per week and spends approximately four hours a month listening to the podcasts they download.
* More interestly, on average less than 20% listen to their podcast downloads on an MP3 player or other digital device.
The Bridge Ratings study was presented at the 2005 "Portable Media & Podcast Expo" in Ontario, California. Click here to see Van Dyke's entire presentation.
PS: It takes more time than you'd think to get your podcasts listed with ITunes, but it's worth it.
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