From Inside Radio:
Does podcasting cut into radio time? A new report finds the answer is yes. 38% of active podcast downloaders say they’re listening to radio less often (according to a report by Nielsen). The survey of 1,700 people also finds that more than 6% of adults — or about nine million web users — have downloaded a podcast in the past 30 days. The average time spent listening to podcasts is 44 minutes. Many stations have begun offering ad-supported podcasts but the challenge is to get folks to listen to the ads. 60% of those in the Nielsen study say they always fast forward past commercials. Women (67%) are more likely to skip ads. The other gender factor — 75% of those who described themselves as regular podcast downloaders were male.
Podcast listening results in less radio listening?
Duh.
Would you imagine that media listening would come from some place OTHER than radio? Listening is going to come from the alternative which provides the same benefit – and that alternative is clearly radio.
This goes back to my same-old point: There is no difference between the business radio is in and the one podcasting is in (this point is discussed at length in my book, Fresh Air). They are one and the same. And that’s why radio must jump into podcasting with both feet, assuming it is of interest or value to the audience for any given format.
Podcast listeners skip past commercials?
Duh.
Ever heard of TiVo? Of course they skip past commercials.
But why would you have commercials on a podcast when you could have the entire podcast sponsored by a client and thus elminate the need for annoying commercials?
Or use “sponsored by” messages the way public radio does.
You only skip what drags on, what’s annoying enough and long enough to skip. You don’t skip what flashes by. Fast spots or sponsorship messages are far more trouble to skip than they are to listen through.
It’s HOW advertisers use podcasts – not whether thair traditional ads will be listened to – that is key. And that doesn’t even begin to touch on the relevance of those ads to the listeners of the podcast. Indeed, the problem with advertising in general is a preference for tonnage over relevance – but that’s another post for another time.
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