Podcasts Proliferate, But Are Not Mainstream
As gadgets with digital audio capability proliferate, podcast downloading continues to increase. Currently, 19% of all internet users say they have downloaded a podcast so they could listen to it or view it later. This most recent percentage is up from 12% of internet users who reported downloading podcasts in our August 2006 survey and 7% in Pew Internet's February-April 2006 survey.
Still, podcasting has yet to become a fixture in the everyday lives of internet users, as very few internet users download podcasts on a typical day. Even of those who say they download podcasts, just 17% do so on a typical day.
These results come from a nationally-representative telephone survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project from April 8 - May 11, 2008 of 2,251 adults. The portion of the survey that covered podcast downloading was administered to 1,553 internet users. The margin of error on the internet sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Read the full report Podcasts Proliferate, But Not Mainstream on the Pew Internet & American Life Project Web site.
