Leaving Ears on the Table: Is Co-Listening On the Rise?
Study after study shows that podcast audience numbers continue to surge throughout the globe. However, insights from the new “Podcast Download Spring 2024” report reveal a potentially significant underestimation in audience measurement. This biannual study from Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights surveyed 603 weekly podcast listeners in April, and it uncovered a key factor often overlooked: co-listening.
This phenomenon, where multiple listeners engage with a single podcast episode, is not typically accounted for in standard audience metrics, which skews the results.
Is the podcasting industry leaving ears on the table?
Since the dawn of podcast advertising, audience measurement has long assumed only one person is being exposed to an ad. This simply isn’t true, and it doesn’t work. Would the TV industry be accurate in assuming only one person is watching a particular show? Of course not. However, the podcasting industry has never contemplated ad exposures by multiple people to the same show, leaving metrics lower than they should be, and therefore underselling its effectiveness (including to moms and Europe) to brands and the advertising industry.