Podcast Content Wears The Crown

Cumulus Media, in partnership with Signal Hill Insights, today released their Podcast Download – Spring 2023 Report, a comprehensive evaluation of the podcast audience. The tenth edition of the study that examines weekly podcast consumers is part of Cumulus Media’s commitment to share insights and research findings with the podcast community. 

A key finding uncovered in the Podcast Download Report is that podcast consumers have embraced YouTube as the number one podcast platform, especially with podcast discovery.  

“Throughout our long-running Podcast Download Report series, we have seen the steady growth of YouTube as a podcast destination and now as a gateway to podcast discovery,” said Suzanne Grimes, EVP, Marketing for Cumulus Media and President, Westwood One. “While the dominance of YouTube as a platform is exciting and important as we continue to launch our Cumulus Podcast Network shows on YouTube, at the end of the day, content trumps the platform, and our strategy is to focus on podcasts that retain the audience regardless of platform.”

“The platform findings in the report are fascinating and challenge some of the conventional wisdom we’ve seen in the industry regarding podcast destinations,” said Paul Riismandel, Chief Insights Officer and Partner, Signal Hill Insights. “What we’ve seen is that the YouTube preference is utilitarian. Podcasting is still a multi-platform world, consistent with our heterogenous digital media consumption ecosystem. Consumers stick with YouTube for the video, community, comments, and recommendations but platform exclusivity is less important as we see podcast consumers also listening to their YouTube shows elsewhere.”

The Spring 2023 edition reveals valuable insights for content creators and advertisers. Some highlights from the report: 

• Audio is powerful. Podcast consumers spend nearly as much time on YouTube listening to podcasts without visuals as they do while watching.
• Since 2019, YouTube and Spotify have been growing among Podcast Newcomers at the expense of Apple Podcasts, with a recent shift to YouTube and away from Spotify.
• More than half of weekly podcast consumers who have listened to or watched podcasts on YouTube say they have listened to the same podcasts in another place.
• YouTube consumers will switch platforms if the podcasts they access most on YouTube became available only on another platform such as Spotify of Apple Podcasts.
• Podcast consumers who watch video podcasts often have eyes on the screen. Over 6 in 10 look at the screen at least some of the time, even during ads. Year over year, podcast watchers are increasing their time spent with eyes on the screen.
• Podcast genre preference among consumers dictates the need for a video. Consumers who prefer watchable podcasts are more likely to say they listen to Music and Health/Fitness podcasts than the audio-only consumers who lean towards True Crime.