From Jeff Jarvis, podcasts are pretty popular according to a Nielsen report released today (PDF).
- 6 percent of U.S. adults — 9 million people — have downloaded podcasts in the last 30 days. The same number call themselves regular podcast listeners.
- More than 75 percent of them are male.
- 38 percent of active podcast listeners told Nielsen that they are listening to radio less often.
- The most successful podcasts, Nielsen says, are get two million downloads a month.
- 60 percent said they always fast-forward past commercials.
- 72 percent of regular downloaders get one to three podcasts a week; heavy users — 10 percent of them — take eight or more.
But are downloaded podcasts always listened to? An early study found that more 80% of podcast downloads never make it to a portable player or another device – they are consumed on the PC (or, worse, never listened or deleted).