UK and US: How many consumers are willing to pay for their podcasts?
Podcast listening has been growing among British and American consumers
since before the pandemic began, according to YouGov’s recent Global Media Outlook 2022 report.
The audio trend is only expected to accelerate further among key audiences over this year; data from YouGov’s latest report shows that at least a fifth of consumers in Great Britain (20%) and 22% of those in the US who increased or maintained their engagement with podcasts in the past 12 months intend to listen even more in the next 12 months.
There's even a willingness to pay for podcasts which proves to be a spot of good news for podcast producers and publishers looking to generate subscription revenue.
A separate YouGov survey conducted on behalf of Variety
reveals that 25% of podcast listeners in the US and 14% of those in Great Britain say they are very or somewhat likely to pay or donate money to listen to a podcast in the next 12 months.
Young podcast listeners tend to be driving this willingness to pay for podcasts. Among those likely to pay for podcasts in the US tend, nearly a fifth fall between the ages of 18-24 (19%) and 39% are aged 25-34. Similarly In Great Britain, consumers aged 25-34 (28%) make up the largest share of people willing to donate or pay money to listen to podcasts.
These figures soar among another key podcast audience: weekly listeners. Two in five weekly podcast listeners in the US (40%) and roughly a quarter of weekly listeners in Great Britain (23%) indicate a strong willingness to pay to access podcasts.
Looking at the types of podcasts where listeners in the US want to see more content, the leading genre is history (34%) followed by news/politics (29%), comedy (26%), science (25%) and true crime (22%).
It’s a slightly different picture in Great Britain, with podcast listeners saying they want to see more interesting podcast content related to comedy (39%), history (35%), news/politics (30%), science (28%) and TV, film, or music (25%).
Download the Global Media Outlook 2022 report for a full look at media engagement across the world
Methodology
YouGov interviewed 2,002 British adults and 1,554 US adults aged 18 and over in January 2022 regarding their podcast listening frequency. Those who say they listen to podcasts in Great Britain (n=922) and the US (n=747) were then asked about their likelihood to pay for podcasts. All interviews were conducted online, and results are weighted to be nationally representative of each market.
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