Only a minority of US Internet users listen to podcasts, but according the "Podcast Downloading" report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, roughly 12% of Internet users say they have downloaded a podcast so they can listen to it or view it at a later time.
The audience is growing. That number compares to 7% of Internet users who reported downloading a podcast in Pew's February-April 2006 survey.
Mary Madden of Pew, the author of the report, estimated in a podcast interview that 17 million people had downloaded podcasts for use on their computers or iPods.
Again, six months earlier an estimated 10 million users had had a podcast experience. In other words, there has been a 70% increase in the number of people who have downloaded podcasted audio or video content.
The bad news — for Steve Jobs and other podcasting advocates — is that in both surveys only 1% of respondents reported downloading a podcast on a typical day. In other words, the frequency level remains very low.
"Few people are doing this with regularity," said Ms. Madden. "There are a lot of people sampling and trying out content."
Time online also seems to be a determining factor in podcast usage. People who have been online for six or more years are twice as likely to have downloaded a podcast than someone who has been online for three years or less (13% vs. 6%, respectively).
While owning an iPod or MP3 player is not an absolute necessity when it comes to listening to or viewing podcasts, it obviously helps. To that end, the proliferation of mobile media devices must be fueling the demand for digital content, which can be either time-shifted or place-shifted for later listening and viewing.
According to Pew's earlier survey, 20% of US adults and 26% of US Internet users own an iPod or MP3 player.
For more information on this growing phenomenon, read eMarketer's Podcasting: Who's Tuning In? report.