Tuesdata: Four guesses at how much podcast listening is actually occurring

Welcome to a Tuesday update from Unmade. In today’s data-led post for Unmade’s paying members, we share the specifics on competing data on podcast listening.

We’ve announced the schedule for this year’s Compass series. Our panel-in-the-pub, end-of-year tour kicks off in Sydney on November 3 and concludes in Hobart a fortnight later. Reflecting on 2025 and projecting into 2026, please hold the date for your city:

• November 3 – Compass Sydney

• November 5 – Compass Brisbane

• November 10 – Compass Adelaide

• November 11 – Compass Perth

• November 17 – Compass Melbourne

• November 18 – Compass Hobart

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How many people are actually listening to podcasts? Literally no one knows for sure, but here’s another guess

For a medium that was digital from the beginning, it’s frustrating how increasingly little we know about the true state of podcasting.

Today came the annual contribution from podcast production house Deadset Studios, with their annual tracker, PodPoll.

It’s one of at least five credible (and conflicting) data points – PodPoll; Roy Morgan Single Source; the Australian Communications & Media Authority, The Infinite Dial and The Australian Podcast Ranker.

And yet we don’t know a definite answer to the simple question: How many Australians are now listening to podcasts?

The most optimistic estimate is almost double that of the most pessimistic.

One problem is that of fragmentation of consumption. The algorithmic discovery of YouTube has been in rapid growth while Apple’s podcast app (which as a daily user I feel well qualified to observe is surprisingly shithouse) is in gentle decline. Throw in Listnr, iHeart, Spotify and ABC Listen et al, and every listener is different.

Many of them (deliberately) offer limited, black box measurement that can’t be directly compared.

Which leaves us with the least reliable method of all – asking people to guess at their usage. Do you recall seeing a cow in the last day? I bet you can answer that question accurately. How about within the last week, or the last month? Your recollection will be more of a guess, and more likely to skew positive. Actually, maybe it was in fact five weeks since you drove past a cow in a field, but you may guess that it was within the last month.

Now ask yourself the same question about when you last heard a podcast. You probably know with near certainty whether you listened to one in the last 24 hours. The further back you go, the less likely you’ll actually know, particularly if you’re only a light user.

Of the four big surveys that try to answer the question, every one has different methodology and sample groups. Edison Research’s Infinite Dial, funded by Commercial Radio Australia has the greatest incentive to find good news. It starts at age 10+. Roy Morgan goes from 14+. PodPoll and provider Enactuate target the 15+ population. And the ACMA go with 18+. ACMA looks at the last week, the other three look over a month.

At one end of the scale, Roy Morgan Research says just 27.5% of people have listened in the last month. At the other end, Edison Research puts the number at 52%.

Steve Allen, who I defer to on statistical matters, prefers the RMR data which covers all media. He points out that specially commissioned research on a particular topic often over-estimates.

Still, so you have the spread, let’s capture in one place what all the current data says.

PodPoll:

• Have you listened to a podcast in the last month? 47%

Methodology: 3,768 15+ respondents to sample managed by Enactuate, May 2025.

ACMA:

• Listened to podcast in the past seven days? 50%

Methodology: 3,497 18+ online interviews by The Social Research Centre, June 2024

Infinite Dial Australia:

• Listened to a podcast in last month? 52%

Methodology: 1,543 age 10+ online and phone interviews by Edison Research, March and April 2025

Roy Morgan Research:

• Listened to a podcast in last four weeks? 27.5%

Methodology: Roy Morgan Single Source 65,000 sample covering 14+ population, March 2025.

So now you know what you don’t know.

Previous Unmade coverage of the PodPoll:

Bouncebackability on the Unmade Index

Having fallen a chunky 2.12% yesterday, the Unmade Index reversed itself today, improving by 2.14%.

Nine improved by 2.4% having lost 1.2% yesterday. Ooh Media put 4.4% back on after losing 10.2% yesterday.

Southern Cross Austereo also charged up, by 3.1%.

Sports Entertainment Group, owner of SEN Radio, rose by 1.7% on the day that Nine’s Australian Financial Review reported a rumour that Nine’s management is trying to sell its radio business to SEN.

The Unmade Index closed on 577.9 points.

Time to leave you to your evening. Thanks as ever for your support as a paying member.

And remember – our annual members get free tickets to Unmade events. Your voucher code for REmade is: MEM25

We’ll be back with more tomorrow. Have a great night.

Toodlepip…

Tim Burrowes

Publisher – Unmade + Mumbrella

tim@unmade.media