‘Podcasting’s growth and scale are undeniable’: The Australian Podcast Report 2024
Podcasts have “firmly cemented their position as a dominant force in Australia’s media landscape”, according to the annual Australian Podcast Report from CRA, which reveals that listenership has boomed by 37% over the last two years.
UPDATE: CRA have since retracted the claim in this report that 63% of Australian podcasts average over 100,000 listens per month. Statements from CRA and Triton are at the bottom of this article.
Commercial Radio & Audio found the format now boasts nearly six million weekly listeners, with 48% of Australians between 18 and 34 listening in the last month, and 37% of those aged 35-54 tuning in.
“Podcasting’s growth and scale are undeniable, with 63% of podcasts now achieving over 100,000 average monthly downloads in 2024,” said Lizzie Young, chief executive officer, CRA.
“This surge is fuelled by the diversity of content available and the ease of on-demand access.”
These statistics relate to those podcasts distributed by those media companies participating in the Australian Podcast Ranker, and as such, doesn’t include the hobbyists, who may capture a few dozen listeners.
This brings the actual average listenership down per podcast, but also means that the overall percentage surge in the past two years, and total listenership are both likely to be a lot higher.
Not surprisingly, mobile phones are the chosen listening device for 94.2% of podcasts, with society and culture, true crime, and news being the dominant genres.
Thursdays are also the main podcast-listening days for Australians, with weekends far less impactful.
“As podcasting continues to evolve, it offers exceptional opportunities for advertisers to connect with audiences in meaningful and measurable ways,” Young noted.
UPDATE:
Statement from Daryl Battaglia, SVP of Measurement Strategy at Triton Digital:
“Earlier this week, Triton Digital provided data for the annual Australian Podcast Report, highlighting download trends in the Australian market. Since then, our team has released an updated version to clarify one slide in the report. The report now states that large podcasts—those with 100,000+ monthly downloads in Australia—account for 63% of all downloads. This figure reflects the full universe of Triton-measured podcasts with listeners in Australia. The data underscores that while the majority of impressions in a podcast advertising buy come from large podcasts, the podcasting landscape remains diverse, with a robust long tail of content. The Australian Podcast Ranker, an opt-in ranking powered by Triton’s Podcast Metrics, continues to serve as a trusted measurement standard for the industry. As we track the ongoing growth of Australia’s audio industry, we remain committed to expanding and refining our reporting.”
Clarification Statement from CRA:
“The data presented in the Australian Podcast Report originates from and is the sole responsibility of Triton Digital. An earlier version of the annual report, which is comprised of data from the full universe of Triton-measured podcasts with listeners in Australia, has since been updated to provide further clarification on downloads in the Australian market. CRA does not produce, alter, or control the reported data in any capacity.
The press release from CRA was based on the data provided on the Triton Digital report and subject to final approvals from Triton Digital. What’s important to us is ensuring the accuracy of data and the context is fully understood.”
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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For those of us that stream rather than download (my photos take up all of the storage on my phone), do you have any numbers that are a bit more tractable?
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To these stats include Acast and Spotify?
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