• by Alex Weprin , April 12, 2019

Active podcast listeners are more likely to be male than female, according to a new study conducted by Future Media and the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications.

The study, which was first presented at the National Association of Broadcasters annual conference in Las Vegas this week, attempts to take a comprehensive look at the podcast landscape.

The survey, which was based on a survey and interviews with 2,000 podcast listeners, found podcast listeners overall skew male by a 52% to 48% margin. The gender demographics break somewhat by genre. Spoken-word podcasts skew 73% male to 23% female, while music podcasts leaned slightly female, with 51% vs. 49% males.

Perhaps the most surprising finding was where consumers listen to podcasts. Terrestrial and satellite radio is typically listened to in the car, with some listening at home or on transit.

Podcasts are mostly listened to through mobile devices. (Some 80% of respondents said that is where they listen to them.) But the listening largely takes place at home. When asked on a five-point scale where they are most likely to listen to podcasts, at home scored a 3.9, followed by in vehicles with a 2.8.

When it comes to advertising, the host of the podcast appears to be a key element. Given the intimate nature of podcasts, and the fact that the host often reads the advertising, that relationship is vital. The study found two-thirds of podcast listeners preferred ads read by the podcast host.

In fact, 41.3% of listeners said they had made a purchase based on an ad they heard in a podcast.