The audience for podcasts may be small but there are signs of growth. A report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, says that 12 percent of Internet users have downloaded a podcast so they listen to it or watch it at a later time.

From February through April 2006 only 7 percent of Internet users had downloaded a podcast. In August of this year the number had increased to 12 percent. Mary Madden of Pew and author of the report said that an estimated 17 million people had downloaded a podcast to their iPod or computer.



Six months previously around 10 million users had downloaded a podcast. There has been a 70 percent increase in users downloading podcasts. The downside is that the frequency of downloading a podcast is low. In the survey only 1 percent of respondents said they downloaded a podcast in an average day.



Madden said," Few people are doing this with regularity. There are a lot of people sampling and trying out content."



Time spent online is also a factor when it comes to downloading a podcast. Users who have been online for six years or more are two times more likely to have downloaded a podcast than users who have been online three years or less.



According to the survey males are more likely to download a podcast when compared with females. In the period running from February to April 9 percent of males had downloaded a podcast and 5 percent of females. In August 15 percent of males had downloaded a podcast while only 8 percent of females had done the same.



With the growth of mobile media the audience for podcasting will probably increase. An earlier survey by Pew says that 20 percent of US adults and 26 percent of Internet users own an iPod or an MP3 player.





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