In his most recent Signal Hill Insights blog, company founder and Canadian audio veteran Jeff Vidler provides an overview of three potentially game-changing insights, revealed via several audio podcast research studies conducted in 2023. Last year, Signal Hill partnered on industry research with Sounds Profitable, Triton Digital, and Cumulus Media where they surveyed more than 40,000 participants in Canada, the U.S. and Australia. 

The number one insight is that podcasts on video won’t be replacing audio podcasts any time soon. Instead, they are simply providing another option for podcast fans. The research found that nearly nine-in-10 podcast watchers (86%) say they also listened to an audio podcast in the past month, according to the Sound You Can See report of adult podcast watchers in the U.S.

While many podcast listeners like to watch their favourite podcasts, most will also listen when they can’t watch, or say they prefer to listen. Cumulus Media research revealed that more than half of podcast consumers who get their podcasts from YouTube (56%) also listen to the same podcasts elsewhere. 

The second insight is that podcast campaigns help advertisers reach younger demos. Vidler says podcasts have become a mass medium and are plugging the gaps in linear TV and radio ad campaigns. He backs that up with results from Medium Moves the Message that indicate a reach of 50% among 18 to 34 year olds, compared to 54% for network and cable TV,  and 59% for radio, among the same demographic. 

The third insight for Vidler is that digital audio, including AM/FM streaming, claimed a bigger share of audience and digital ad revenue in 2023 and says the U.S. podcast ad dollars are growing two-times faster than other digital advertising. “Audience and ad buying trends point towards a bigger slice of the advertising pie for digital audio over the next few years. We see this in both our research and other respected industry-wide studies that were released this year.”

In his post, Vidler says the share of radio listening going to AM/FM streaming among Americans aged 25 to 54 doubled in the last decade, according to Edison Research’s Share of Ear study, going from 10% in Q1 2014 to 20% Q1 2023. The trend is similar in Canada, where the share of AM/FM streaming of all AM/FM listening among 25 to 54 year-old Canadians jumped from 11% in winter 2020 to 17% in fall 2023, based on Signal Hill’s Radio on the Move study conducted with support from Radio Connects.