With all eyes on the presidential election, political podcast listening has surged in the US by 28% year-over-year. The growth has been especially pronounced in the past six months, with one particular party significantly favoring the medium.
The trend study came with the September edition of Triton’s Podcast Metrics, in collaboration with Signal Hill Insights.
Democrat-leaning podcasts were found to account for twice as many downloads as Republican-leaning ones, though their share has slightly decreased from 58% to 56% over the past year. Republican podcasts have increased from 23% to 28%.
Political podcast listeners tend to be older, highly educated, and affluent. About 59.7% hold college degrees, 31.9% report household incomes over $100,000, and 47.2% are aged 55 or older. Republican-leaning podcasts have the highest percentage (89.9%) of White listeners. Democrat-leaning podcasts attract the largest share (17.4%) of Black listeners, while Independent-leaning podcasts have the highest proportion (16.2%) of Hispanic listeners.
Independent-leaning podcasts also show a 68.2% college education rate among listeners, with 62.4% being male.
For Triton Digital’s overall US Podcast Ranker for the September reporting period, the iHeart Audience Network again secured the top spot on the Top Sales Networks Report for September, with 69.2 million average weekly downloads and 19.9 million average weekly users. SiriusXM followed in second place, while NPR ranked third.
The Top Sales Network Reports rank networks based on average weekly downloads and users, following the IAB Podcast Technical Measurement Guidelines. Triton’s Podcast Metrics are IAB Tech Lab certified.
The top three podcasts based on downloads were NPR News Now, Up First (NPR), and Crime Junkie (audiochuck). For listeners, the ranking was slightly different, with NPR News Now in the lead, followed by Crime Junkie and Up First.
Notable new entries for top downloads included NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal (iHeart Audience Network) and Where Everybody Knows Your Name featuring Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (SiriusXM Podcast Network). For listeners, top new shows included 3 and Out with John Middlekauff, Club 520 Podcast, and Countdown with Keith Olbermann, all from the iHeart Audience Network.
