More people listen to Podcasts on PCs than iPods

Davey Winder
Thursday, 03 July 2008 03:19

Business IT - Networking

The average Podcast user subscribes to 3.6 Podcasts apparently, spending a little over an hour listening to them every week. Comedy and music are the favourite genres, just as they were in the last survey. And there are no surprises when it comes to the software most used to download those Podcasts in the first place. iTunes is used by almost three quarters of Podcast users.

A fifth, however, just download directly from the Podcast source website via their web browsers. Surprisingly, though, an amazing 79 percent claim to listen to these Podcasts not on their iPods or some other MP3 player, but instead on their computers. Only 66 percent use their portable audio devices.

Perhaps the time is right for a name change then? Although Computercast, PCCast or Desktopcast do not have the same ring about them, while Lapcast conjurs up an altogether different type of entertainment.

Whatever device listeners use, it is the evening when they press the play button and start to enjoy the experience. The evening peak sees 44 percent of users settling down to a Podcast blast. 83 percent of what is being listened to will be more than a week old in terms of broadcast content though.

Interestingly, when it comes to Podcast advertising, some 53 percent of respondents said they would be interested in downloading Podcasts containing advertising as long as they were free. 31 percent would not mind paying for their Podcasts if that meant that they remained advert free zones.