Where Europeans Are Plugging into Podcasts

Podcast listeners in Spain are in good company, with two out of every five people tuning into podcasts at least monthly, while other countries on the continent have been slower in picking up podcasting.

On the whole, around 28 percent of Europeans had listened to a podcast within the last month when the Reuters Institute of Journalism polled respondents across fifteen different countries late last year. This is a similar rate to the U.S., where roughly a third of people turn to podcasts at least once a month. The podcasting phenom took off in 2014 when the popular investigative journalism series Serial, produced by NPR, took the nascent industry by storm.

Over the past three years, Europe has seen a podcast evolution, an exciting prospect for advertisers looking to capture engaged consumers. Podcast listeners register a high level of positive sentiment towards ads on the shows they listen to. In fact, a study by Westwood One found that half of the listeners they surveyed reported being loyal to brands that advertise on their favorite shows.