Podcasts: The Future of Radio (and maybe TV too)

I rarely have time to watch my favorite TV show at the time it normally comes on (a quality I share with many other fellow YAYA individuals as shown by MOJO Ad’s latest State of the YAYA report,) so services like Tivo, Hulu, Netflix and ESPN3 are a godsend in my eyes.

Similarly, I think I’ve only made time in my schedule to listen to a radio show once, and that was solely because my friend, who was host of the show, asked me to specifically.

On the other hand, I’m not one to just flip through channels or stations. If I have time to watch or listen to something, I want it to be something I’m going to enjoy, not a roll of the dice.

Which is why podcasts are my perfect medium. I like to think of podcasts as on-demand entertainment, both audio and video, that I can download onto my music player of choice and listen to whenever I have the chance.

The beauty of podcasting comes in its freedom. Episodes can range from minutes to hours, can be made by big media outlets like NPR and ESPN to one guy in his dining room and can be about topics ranging from politics to video games (the latter being my topic of choice.)

Now I may be a bit biased when it comes to podcasts (I do host my own after all,) but numbers don’t lie. A 2009 eMarketer study found that the percentage of Internet users who download podcasts grew from 9% in 2008 to 11% in 2009, and is projected to grow to 17% in 2013. Plus, a Pew Internet & American Life Project demographic profile showed that podcast listeners are primarily male and in the 18-29 year old age group.

Starting a podcast might not be the answer for every company, but for many, it can be a great way to build brand equity in the notoriously tough to market to YAYA lifestage.