Is Podcasting a Success?

As mentioned here before, podcasting is an audio extension of blogging. Instead of writing news and views, podcasters create audio (and now some video) broadcasts that you can download and listen to or watch at your convenience. Another form of podcasting emanates from commercial broadcasters who save some of their programs to the MP3 format so you can time-shift your listening. But, how many folks are listening to these efforts?

According to a recently released report form Forrester Research, not that many. Forrester says only one percent of North American households regularly download and listen to podcasts. And, according to the report, "One-quarter of online consumers express interest in podcasts, with most interested in time-shifting existing radio and Internet radio channels." But while, they may be interested, there has not been a big movement to take some action and listen to them.

So podcasting, for the moment at least, is not only a bare trickle in the media stream, but one whose appeal is limited to those who use it to time-shift broadcast existing radio, not to listen to various former bloggers who turned to podcasting.

Now to be fair, we're only 18 months or so into the podcasting phenom, and a spokesman for Forrester predicts that it will grow to reach 12.3 million households in the U.S. by 2010. So there's a chance yet that it will someday become a mainstream medium. But right now it seems there's little evidence to merit all the hoopla we've been hearing from podcast evangelists.

Frankly, I don't care about all the hoopla. It is nice to be a member of a very small minority (at least Forrester says I am). As I have written here before, I do listen to podcasts...and they are from blogger/podcasters, not reruns of commercial programs. I subscribe to various podcasts that are automatically downloaded by my iTunes software. I then copy them to a blank CD and mostly listen to them while driving (I guess I should think about buying an iPod).

It sure beats most radio stations and listening to music can get tiresome. I enjoy listening to podcasts that are about things that really interest me, like digital photography and related subjects like Photoshop tips. In the car, I am a captive audience, so I would rather hear interesting talk on interesting subjects rather than stupid commercials.

If you would like to explore the world of podcasting, I would start by heading to Yahoo's podcast-specific search engine and seeing what is out there. It is amazing and fun.