The ABC’s 2019 Podcast Survey^ presented at Australia’s premier podcast industry conference OzPod today revealed essential findings for Australian podcasters on how to reach more listeners.



Cath Dwyer, Acting ABC Head of Distribution, said “The OzPod conference is all about bringing the Australian podcasting industry together, and sharing expertise, insights and approaches to creating content which reaches and resonates with audiences. As Australia’s leading podcast producer, the ABC is excited to share the results of our latest Podcast Survey with the wider industry.”

The survey revealed that Australian podcast listeners are very engaged. For those who listened to a podcast in the previous week, an average of six podcast episodes were listened to.

However, when it comes to choosing podcasts they have declared they are inundated with choice. The research shows that 1 in 2 podcast listeners (51%), claim to be overwhelmed by the increasing choice of podcasts available in a growing marketplace.

The ABC podcast survey, completed by more than 2, 500 podcast listeners, also offered the following insights into podcast listeners and their behaviour:

Podcast listeners also revealed they prefer original content rather than catch-up radio podcasts, with the majority (76%) of episodes listened to in the past month being original podcasts

Podcast listeners continue to be driven by audio that entertains, teaches or informs them

Comedy podcasts appeal more to a younger audience (14 – 34) while Society and Culture and Health and Lifestyle appeal more to an older audience (55+)

Word of mouth is the number 1 means of discovering new podcasts. But when choosing between options, listeners are most motivated to try new podcasts from the Episode Descriptions (including Headline, 71%) and Recommendations (70%)

‘At Home’ remains the most common location for podcast listening (76%), although a large proportion of podcast listeners aged between 14 – 34 are listening to podcasts while they are out and about.

To view the full ABC Podcast Research Survey results click here.

Source: ^2019 ABC Podcast Survey, September 2019, n=2567 podcast listeners, weighted to reflect the age profile of monthly podcast listeners in Australia.