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Research: 36% US households listen to podcasts weekly

April 1, 2020

A consumer study from Parks Associates finds 36 per cent of US broadband households listen to podcasts weekly, although the research firm expects new patterns of video, music, and news consumption to emerge as a result of the current public health crisis with COVID-19.

The report explores service uptake, business model preferences, service spending, and value perceptions for video, music, and news services among differing consumer segments. The study finds that podcasts have a stronger appeal among younger consumers than older consumers and almost half of podcast consumers are heavy users, spending more than five hours per week listening. Podcast users are also very interested in bundling podcast services with video and music.

The research also reports that in Q3 2019, 9 per cent of US broadband households subscribed to an online news service.

“While news consumption is going up during the COVID-19 crisis and daily briefings, most online news outlets have provided their coverage free of charge or outside of the paywall, so the number of households subscribing to an online news service will likely not increase as much in the short term,” said Steve Nason, Research Director, Parks Associates said. “Long term, we will be tracking consumer trends to see if current events will drive broader online news consumption and subscription habits.”

Categories: Articles, Consumer Behaviour, Digital Radio, Research