Insights on the Infinite Dial Report

Despite the required shift from streaming the presentation live from New York City39s Greene Space stage to streaming via webcast Webster and Rosso did their best to maximize the small screen and did not disappoint Their genuine friendship and banter even beyond the requisite question in these days of midshot videos quotAre you wearing pants Johnquot have always added color to the research reporting And this year39s somber attendees no doubt appreciated it I asked a couple of the webinar attendees including Westwood One39s chief research officer Pierre Bouvard and WarnerMedia Podcast Network39s Tyler Moody for their more serious takeawaysInfinite Dial 2020 is divided by topic including media and tech social media incar media audio and podcasting Overall the survey did not hold many shockers the use of popular social media channels including Facebook and Pinterest has stayed steady with TikTok showing the biggest uptick phonewatch purchases have leveled off tablets have slightly declined and Amazon Alexa devices are still the clear leader in smart speakers What is interesting however is that while US smart speaker ownership is at 27 percent about 62 percent of the population actively uses voice assistants amp8212 which could be Alexa her sister Siri or an IoT refrigeratorSpeaking of voice Pandora retains its lead for awareness and monthly usage by 35 to 54yearolds but Spotify led the pack for monthly users among the 1234 set The influence of smart speaker ownership also impacted a big jump in Amazon Music consumption if still just 8 percent of the pie overallBouvard was a fan of the fact that smart speakers are also bringing radio usage back into the home quotThe Edison data reveals that 68 percent of homes have a radio and an additional 8 percent amp8230 have smart speakers but no radioquotWhile incar media was a boon for online radio amp8212 and podcasting amp8212 it will be interesting to see how homebound Americans shift media habits Webster personally predicted that this could actually have a negative effect on podcast consumption as our opportunities to say listen while driving or commuting are replaced with time entertaining or homeschooling children or being engrossed with TV newsWebster teed up the section on podcasting with an admittedly recycled but apropos joke quotIf you39d like to listen to this webinar as a podcast just close your eyesquot There were if not eyeopeners some pleasant surprises uncovered in that realm For Bouvard it was quothow fast the growth of female audiences to podcasting has expanded Female audience growth is triple that of menquot He cited the finding that monthly female podcast audiences have risen dramatically yearoveryear YoY from 29 percent to 36 percent a 24 percent increase Male monthly podcast audiences have grown a modest 8 percent YoY from 36 percent to 39 percentIn noting that podcasting39s jump in monthly listeners from 32 percent to 37 percent moves it past the 100 million mark Webster says it39s quotcertainly a medium now for advertisers to take seriouslyquot Moody of course as vice president and general manageramp160for WarnerMediaamp160Podcast Network has always been bullish on that but soberly adds that the average time spent listening has leveled off amp8212 still at approximately 65 hours quotSo it39s on everyone in the industry to continue to bring more new people to podcastingquot Moody says quotThere39s still plenty of room for growth there39s a huge opportunity with listeners in cars that will likely require both tech improvements for frictionless access to podcasts and shifts in content strategyquotIn terms of monetizing podcasts Moody believes that just as listenership is growing quotnew advertisers and categories will continue to learn the podcast space and find value with its unmatched audience engagementquotBouvard added his own empirical backup to that belief quotWe just fielded a study of advertisers that said the tipping for brands is a 44 percent monthly reach With the now 104 million monthly listeners this year we are getting really close to that tipping point for brandsquotComparing the profiles of monthly podcast listeners to the US population listeners still skew younger and slightly if less than before male and are still less diverse However Webster notes that next up from Edison will be the results of a study they are currently fielding among HispanicLatinx listenersDon39t stop now Stay in the know on audio and media industry trends with executive interviews and more from EB MossClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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Insights on the Infinite Dial Report

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