While the Interactive Advertising Bureau recently reported that podcasting was up a generous 86% in ad revenue— up substantially to an estimated $314 million in 2017, from $169 million the year before—it’s all about context. Compare that to commercial radio revenue, with an estimated $13+ billion.
A lot of this has to do with the fact that a whopping 45% of consumers say they “never” listen to podcasts, according to a new post on the Jacobs Media blog titled “Will Podcasting Every Go Mainstream?” based on its Techsurvey 2018. “Part of podcasting’s comparatively modest monetization picture is due to its incremental growth in overall usage,” says Jacobs President and co-founder Fred Jacobs. “We see only gradual increases in podcast listening in Techsurvey 2018 – but much more robust listenership in our Public Radio Techsurveys, where that audience is becoming more rapidly accustomed to on-demand, long-form audio content.
Researchers often focus on those already engaged in podcasting – who they are, what gadgets they use, how many podcasts they listen to a week and other such data points.
That 45% who have never tuned in comprise 45% of TechSurvey respondents in 2018, compared to 48% in 2017. “The good news is these podcast avoiders are a smaller group than in our 2017 study,” Jacobs explains. “They lean male, and heavily into the Boomer and Silent generations. Notably, the most frequent podcast fans are Millennials.” Also, a majority of tech late adopters also fall into this “podcasts never” group, which “suggests there may be technical issues afoot that go a long way toward explaining why so many consumers know as much about podcasts as their nuclear physics.”
Jacobs asked this group to choose among a number of reasons to explain their lack of involvement in the medium: Leading the way is “I’m just not interested,” with 64%. A professed lack of time is next, at 23%, while next are “the more practical problems with podcasting,” that is “I just don’t know how to do it” (21%) and “I don’t know how to find podcasts” (18%). The fact is, that for many people, the medium presents technical barriers to listening. “A lack of knowledge about how to listen, where to search, and the overall hassle of finding and selecting on-demand audio options are key speed bumps,” writes Jacobs.
But there’s still another barrier, and it has to do with smartphones and apps. Techsurvey shows the smartphone is – by far – the gadget of choice for podcast listening. “If you own an iPhone, it comes installed with a nifty, native Podcasts app that makes it relatively easy to access on-demand audio. On the other hand, if you’re in the massive group of those who’ve opted for Android phones, you’re out of luck”—because Google has not yet developed the same sort of seamless app experience that’s been part of the iPhone arsenal these past several years, he says.
That may be changing. While still in the rumor stages, the site 9to5Google reports a Google Podcasts app may be in the offing. “The term ‘game-changer’ is overused in media and tech circles. But in the case of podcasting, many experts believe that a brainless Android app for podcasts is the missing link that will unleash much more interest in the medium,” Jacobs believes. “When it becomes as easy to listen to on-demand audio – podcasts – as it is to watch on-demand video (Netflix, YouTube, Hulu), it’ll be a whole different ball game.” Now, he says, “It’s just a matter of time.”