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With the amount of attention podcasting has gotten in the past 18 months it’s no surprise that familiarity for the medium has taken a very big jump.
Edison Research Senior Vice President Tom Webster told Rob Greenlee on The Spreaker Live Show Wednesday night that the percentage of people familiar with the term podcast has gone from 64% last year to 70% this year. Webster called that significant growth, in terms of familiarity. “This past year has gone well in terms of getting people at least aware that these things do exist and getting them to be curious about them.”
Webster said back in 2006 only 22% of Americans had ever heard the term podcasting. And, he says, that number was stuck in the mid-40’s for about 6 or 7 years. It started to pick up in 2016 when it went from 49% to 55% and in the past four years it’s gone from 55% to 70%. Webster says when 7 out of 10 people say they’ve at least heard the term then you’re getting somewhere. “That doesn’t mean they really know what it is, they’ve at least heard the term.”
Webster also said podcasting has made inroads toward 100 million listeners. At Podcast Movement last year, Webster said podcasting needed 52 million more weekly listeners to reach 100 million. Wednesday night, teasing Edison’s soon-to-be released 2019 Infinite Dial study (March 6), Webster said podcasting continues to be a vibrant space. He did not reveal how close to that 100 million mark podcasting actually is.