Podcast Growth In Canada Called 'Tremendous'

Over one-quarter of Canadians 18+ now own a smart speaker, and 36% of Canadians 18+ are now weekly podcast listeners, according to The Infinite Dial 2019 Canada report, a comprehensive study of digital media behavior in Canada which debuted today at the Canadian Music Week Radio Summit in Toronto.

Findings of the study were presented by Tom Webster, Senior Vice President from Edison Research, the leading provider of high-quality survey research about audio in the U.S. and worldwide, and Stephanie Donovan, SVP, Publisher Development North America at Triton Digital, the global technology and services provider to the digital audio and podcast industry.

Webster and Donovan presented the latest information on media device ownership, radio, smart speakers, online audio, in-car audio, and podcasting among Canadians.  Awareness of smart speakers overall (such as Google Home or Amazon Alexa) grew to 65% of the Canadian population age 18+, and the number of smart speaker owners who have two smart speakers in their home almost tripled, from 15% of owners last year to 43% in 2019. Podcasting also saw tremendous growth year-over-year, with 36% of the 18+ population having listened to a podcast in the last month, up from 28% in the 2018 survey.

This marks the second annual release of the study in Canada, and the continued expansion of the Infinite Dial, the longest-running survey of digital media consumer behavior in the U.S.  The survey is a representative telephone survey of all Canadians age 18 and over, designed to be projectable to the nation’s population.

“The percentage of Canadians listening to podcasts has grown tremendously since 2018, mirroring what we have seen in the Infinite Dial U.S., and providing more evidence of a surge in spoken word programming,” noted Webster.  “The increase in smart speaker owners who have two or more smart speakers in their home - from 15% last year to a staggering 43% in 2019 - is substantial, and certainly a huge contributor to the increase in overall internet-only audio listening across the region,” said Donovan.

The Infinite Dial Canada 2019 was conducted in the first quarter of 2019 and uses a nationally representative survey of 1,065 people.  The sample is a random probability telephone sample, comprised of both mobile phones and landlines, of all Canadians age 18 and older. The data is weighted to 18+ population figures, and surveys were offered in both English and French.