Getting Information
We’ve gotten used to hearing political ads on radio and television, and there’s no sign of any change there.
But new information indicates that the number of people who listen to podcasts is increasing…and no doubt, ad dollars will follow.
Nielsen Research indicates that more than half of adults in this country say they are listening to podcasts more often now than two years ago…in other words, before the pandemic.
Specifically, 56 percent of adults say they listen to podcasts more…and 52 percent say they are listening to a greater number of podcasts than before.
Similarly, only 3 percent of adults say they are listening less to podcasts now…and only 4 percent have reduced the number of different podcasts they regularly listen to.
And, these are newbies. A total of 51 percent of adults who say they listen to podcasts daily say they started listening in the past two years.
Clearly, that squares with my personal experience. This segment, the Iowa Politics report, is on 18 different podcast outlets, and numbers continue to grow. I’ve seen a bigger spike for the Iowa Almanac podcast, which is also on 18 different outlets. And loyal, daily listeners to the Iowa Business Report podcast is higher now than before, and quite steady.
That’s all in addition to “audio on demand” replays, like on kxel.com or iowaalmanac.com.
Other similar studies show all that podcast listening is not coming at the expense of traditional radio listening. Folks are still spending the same amount of time with radio…just adding podcasts, some from the radio, and taking that time out of other things they used to do.
More examples of the change in lifestyle as a result of the extended COVID shutdown. And soon, another example of how politicians find ways to spend campaign dollars.
