• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, November 24, 2006

About twice as many Web users are downloading podcasts now compared to six months ago, according to new data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Twelve percent of Web users surveyed in August said they have downloaded a podcast--up from 7% who said the same in a survey conducted between February and April. Those numbers appear to be higher than what was reported in July by media measurement company Nielsen//NetRatings, which found that 6.6% of U.S. adult Web users had downloaded a podcast in the last 30 days.

Pew attributed the increase to the surge in MP3 ownership as well as the vast amount of content now available--more than 26,000 podcasts and 1 million episodes, according to the report.

Podcast downloaders are more likely to be male and connect via broadband, according to Pew. The study found that 15% of men downloaded podcasts, compared to just 8% of women. In addition, 14% of those with home broadband connections had transferred podcasts to their computers, compared to 10% of dial-up users.

Online tenure also correlated with podcast use; 13% of users with at least six years of online experience reported downloading podcasts, while just 6% of users with three years' or less experience online had done so.

Despite the increase in number of downloaders, the activity still appears to be an infrequent occurrence; only 1% of respondents said they downloaded a podcast on a typical day.

For the report, Pew conducted a telephone survey of 2,928 adults by phone.