A photograph of London from the air

Podcasting in the UK as popular as the US

Listen · · 3.6 minutes to read

This article is at least a year old

  • Data: The Infinite Dial 2021 for the UK was released. 41% of the UK population (16+) listens to podcasts every month - around 23m people. The data is directly comparable to the US (41%), Canada (38%) and Australia (36%). The data was paid-for by Bauer Media and Spotify. Adam Bowie looks at the data.

  • Data: Around 425,000 new episodes were published on Anchor in November, but the company lost 0.7% market share. In the top ten, the top 8 remains unchanged; Captivate is new at #9, beating Megaphone which remains at #10. (Podnews’s Editor is an advisor for Captivate).

  • Data: Megaphone published a look at podcast consumption data for Spotify and Megaphone in 2021. Podcast listening (on Megaphone) more than doubled in Italy; podcast listening in-car (on Spotify) increased 28 times (probably driven, ha, by decreased car usage in 2020's lockdowns).

Thank you to SALT, who make extraordinary experiences in audio, for becoming a gold supporter today. The people who made Dr Death Season 3, The Midnight Miracle and Bad Vibes, their website contains a quite brilliant exploding colourful loudspeaker. You can support us here

Moves and hires - with Pod People

  • Sarah van Mosel stepped down in October as CRO from Stitcher. HotPod Insider reports that she’ll still be consulting with the company. Drew Welborn left in mid November and has rejoined talent agency WME.

  • Sep 9 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

Tips and tricks

Podcast News - with Blue Wire

    WR1 with Cris Carter
    Play trailerIn Blue Wire's limited series WR1 presented by WynnBet, legendary NFL wide receiver Cris Carter interviews legends of the WR position as well as the next generation of superstars to understand what makes this position so unique, as so many personalities and stories come from outside of the hash marks. Guests include Julian Edelman, Adam Thielen, Mike Evans, Calvin Johnson, and many more.
    Centuries of Sound
    Centuries of Sound - a project making a mix of recorded sound from every year - has reached 1939. The four hour episode only gets into World War II in the last hour; before that, music and recorded clips from the year, including Solomon Linda & The Evening Birds singing Mbube in the only recording studio in sub-saharan Africa. You’ll recognise it. - read more
    Podnews Weekly Review
    Play trailerIn Podland this week, James speaks to Winslow Bright, a music supervisor with Premier Music Group on the complex world of licensing commercial music for podcasts. It’s a fascinating look at why it’s probably not quite as simple as some people will tell you.
    27 Club
    Play trailerThey tried to make me go to rehab: I said no, no, no. Why did so many talented musicians die at the age of 27? 27 Club returns for a new season, looking at the career of Amy Winehouse: a once-in-a-century talent that barely made it into the new century.

Listen to the Podnews podcast in your favourite podcast app
Paid content

Companies mentioned above:
Acast logoAcastAnchor logoAnchorAustralian Podcast Awards logoAustralian Podcast AwardsCaptivate logoCaptivateIAB logoIABiHeartRadio logoiHeartRadioMegaphone logoMegaphoneNPR logoNPRSpotify logoSpotifyStitcher logoStitcherWhooshkaa logoWhooshkaa

Readers and supporters

Gold supporters

Silver supporters

Readers and supporters

Get a global view on podcasting and on-demand with our daily news briefing