• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, April 10, 2006

Marketing spending on podcasts is expected to surpass spending on blogs within a few years, but at present, podcasts seem to appeal to only a miniscule fraction of consumers.

Forrester Research late last week issued a report stating that just 1 percent of online households regularly download podcasts. By the end of this year, Forrester estimates that 700,000 online households will listen to podcasts on portable devices.

While that figure is expected to grow to 12.3 million by 2010, Forrester Resarch predicts that the largest share of that market will stem from consumers who listen to traditional radio programs on MP3s, rather than original Web shows.

Meanwhile, PQ Media predicts that podcast advertising will grow from $3.1 million last year to $327 million in 2010--at which time it will be a larger market than blogs. The report, scheduled to be released Tuesday, forecasts that ad spending on all social media--including blogs, podcasts, and RSS feeds--will grow at a compound annual rate of 106.1 percent from 2005 to 2010, reaching $757.0 million in 2010. This year alone, spending on blogs, podcasts, and RSS ads is expected to grow to $49.8 million--marking a 144.9 percent increase from last year's $20.4 million.