Podcasting: They hear it differently

BBC News: Podcast numbers show 'few hooked'
The (San Jose) Mercury News: Podcasts beginning to reach non-geeks

Both were reporting on a Wednesday release from the
Pew Internet and American Life Project.

From the Mercury News article:

"We are at a crossroads of a major transition in the way media content is delivered," said Mary Madden, a senior research analyst who worked on the Pew survey.

From the BBC article:

But despite the growth, just 1% of respondents said that they would download a podcast on a typical day.

Here's a link to the actual report.

The report said the number of people who have downloaded to a podcast has grown since February from 7 to 12 percent, but the number of people listening to a podcast daily is just 1 percent.

Meanwhile, the number of podcasts produced is exploding. Is critical mass arriving or is content being put up that will just go unheard? Will video blogs overtake podcasting before it even begins? Where exactly does podcasting fit in?

It's hard to tell from these figures. It's like listening to a radio newscast being broken up by static just as the key sentence is spoken.

Tags: podcasting