PODCASTS IN PLURALS

PODCASTS are all set to take growing role in shifting media landscape.

NEW YORK: As radio fades in the new world of digital media, podcasting has become hot.

In less than 15 years, on-demand podcasts have become a key part of the media landscape that is luring advertisers to a market that is worth tens of millions of dollars and growing.

According to Edison Research, 124 million Americans listen to audio podcasts including 73 million on a monthly basis.

''Podcasts are now getting to the point where they sit alongside other forms of  premium media like video and books and television and music,'' said Matt Lieber, a co-founder of Gimlet Media, a major podcast producer.

''Now there are reviewers of podcasts. Financial Times has a person on staff that review podcast. It's almost like if you're not listening to podcast you're out of the loop.''

Podcasts are a natural choice for generation accustomed to on-demand services like Netflix.

Listeners are younger and  better-educated than the avaerage radio listener, with more women in the mix, creating an important demographic for advertisers.

Podcasts and revenues doubled in 2017 to $313 million, according to a study by Pricewaterhouse Coopers [PwC] with the Interactive Advertising Bureau [IAB].

That is less far less than the estimated $14 billion in radio ad revenues for 2016, but podcasting is showing strong growth - likely to double again by 2020 according to PwC/IAB report.

A study by New York University researchers found traditional AM/FM radio is rapidly losing ground to in-demand services, especially among younger audience, with listening by those  13-18  down by almost 50 percentage points between 2005 - 16

''Podcast sponsorship revenue is growing just like the audience is growing,'' said Neil Carruth, general manager podcasts for National Public Radio, a key player-in-podcasting.

''Large brand advertisers have become more interested in recent years. They're very attracted to the age of podcast audience, to the engagement of the podcast audience, to the intelligence, the education and the professional accomplishment of the podcast audience. It's a very desirable audience.''

NPR, one of the earliest entrants in podcasting more than a decade ago, has some 17 million listeners to its podcasts such as  Planet Money, Fresh Air and Ted radio Hour, far more than the rivals. [AFP]