By George Anderson
A new survey indicates that while podcasts remain a small market, it is growing and the makeup of the audience is becoming more populated with female listeners.
A survey released by Podtrac, which operates a targeted service bringing podcast broadcasters and advertisers together, found that while males make up the largest portion of the audience (78 percent), women are catching up. Of those who were asked if they had listened to a podcast in the most recent week, a slight majority (51 percent) were female.
While women took a number of years to catch up to men, in terms of Internet usage, Podtrac CEO and co-founder Mark McCrery doesn't think the curve will be as steep with podcasts.
Already, he told InformationWeek, females make up the largest share of some popular podcast audiences such as MuggleCast, a weekly podcast of a Harry Potter-program that gets 300,000 downloads a month. Three-fourths of MuggleCast's audience is made up of women under the age of 24, he said, adding, "That's a great advertising environment."
Podtrac's McCrery sees a big future for podcasts as an information, entertainment and marketing medium. Although podcasting is only about a year old, he said, already 10 percent of Internet users indicate they are listening to podcasts.
"Podcasting is still in its very early stages, but we're finding that the listenership and viewership in many podcasts is significant and targeted and worthy of advertiser interest," he said.
Moderator's Comment: What are your thoughts on podcasts as a marketing medium now and looking to the future? Will early podcast marketing adopters have an advantage as the medium matures? - George Anderson - Moderator