This year’s report is billed as the largest publicly-available study of podcast consumption in the U.S., with a sample of over 5,000 Americans, 18+.

It highlights a slowdown in overall growth, with the percentage of Americans who have “ever consumed” a podcast increasing only slightly from 72% to 75% over a three-year period. The data reveals that growth seen over the last year has been primarily driven by multicultural audiences, with numbers for Asian and Black Americans showing particular gains. White respondents only account for 52% of total monthly podcast consumption, while 65% of Hispanic Americans partake, 62% of Black audiences, and 66% of APAC (Asia-Pacific) audiences.

The average weekly time spent with podcasts has risen from 6 to 6.3 hours, directly linked to video consumption. YouTube has become the top platform for podcast consumption, with 40% of users naming it their go-to. However, the data challenges the assumption that YouTube is strictly a video-first platform for podcasts.

“Just under half of YouTube podcast consumers…say that they listen more than they watch,” said Sounds Profitable partner Tom Webster. “This suggests that consumers are embracing the flexibility of the medium, choosing to listen to content even when a video version is available.”

The report also found that audiences are becoming more fragmented. While the Joe Rogan Experience remains the most popular podcast (moving from 13% of respondents who cited it as their favourite to 11%), there are signs of erosion as the gap between it and the next three most-loved shows – Crime Junkie, The Daily, and Call Her Daddy – shrunk from 11 percentage points to seven. Webster said this finding, along with a four-point year-over-year increase in interest for news and political analysis, points to a diversifying audience no longer dominated by a few key shows.

“I submit that that’s a healthy thing,” Webster said, emphasizing that the shift to a more varied landscape will benefit the industry as a whole.

Comedy, news and sports remain the milieu’s top genres, according to the study.

“The podcast space is maturing,” he continued. “Organic growth has slowed, which means I think we need to market ourselves a little bit more.”

Webster is suggesting a new approach for the industry, urging some of the bigger shows and celebrity hosts to “talk more about the medium” and promote a wider variety of podcasts to new listeners.

Other study findings include that while smartphones are still dominant as a podcast listening device, smart TVs are a growing go-to for consuming podcasts (9%), often via YouTube.

Webster also noted that the main reasons people cited for listening to podcasts were for discussions on topics of interest and companionship during chores or travel. Hearing from celebrities was deemed a low-priority benefit.

“…this has been true the last three years. Hearing from celebrities ranks the lowest, and I would encourage entities out there, that are putting together new ventures, new shows, new efforts into the space…certainly there are celebrity podcasts that work because those celebrities are excellent at what they do,” said Webster.

“Not only is it not a guarantee of success, it’s pretty low on what people are looking for, and yes, it might get some buzz. It might get some success, but it’s not enough,” he concluded. “People are looking for companions, they’re looking for information on topics that interest them, they’re looking for hobbies, they’re looking for business news, they’re looking for political news, they’re looking for true crime.”

Sounds Profitable will be releasing a second part to the study, focused on discoverability and churn, in the coming months.

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Canadian Media Means Business (CMMB) includes Adapt Media, Bell Media, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB), Cogeco, Friends of Canadian Media, Glacier Media Group, La Presse, Pattison Media, ThinkTV and Village Media.

Hailed as the first study of its kind quantifying the sector’s economic impact, based on research led by Nordicity, its scope encompassed the media and advertising sector (defined as all types of media platforms that connect consumers and the public with news, information, and advertising), including online media, television, audio, and out-of-home media as well as the newspaper, magazine, and directory publishing industry.

The report finds that the industry supports nearly 170,000 jobs, contributing an estimated $21 billion to Canada’s GDP. It states that every $1 million invested in Canadian advertising, generates 8.2 jobs, $630,000 in salaries, and adds $1 million to the GDP.

Despite its impact, the report emphasizes that the sector is under increasing pressure, losing an estimated $7.5 billion in advertising revenue to foreign digital platforms between 2017 and 2022. CMMB says 92% of digital ad dollars currently flow to non-Canadian platforms, putting the sustainability of Canadian media in jeopardy.

“Over the past decade, I have witnessed the alarming loss of jobs in media, the degradation of information integrity, the rise of misinformation, and the increasing inability for Canadians to see themselves in stories and know whom to trust,” writes Sarah Thompson, Executive Managing Director, Glassroom, and Project Lead for CMMB. “The loss is felt in every community across our country, both in our connection to one another and in our democracy. This is not a situation we can afford to ignore. This topic has been extensively studied by many in our own country and around the world. This isn’t what this report is about, nor was it the focus of the analysis. This report is about following the money. I have spent the last decade of my career in media. And I have watched dollars leave the Canadian market rapidly, creating erosion across our economy, as colleagues in media, advertising, and marketing lose their jobs and media environments degrade for our advertisers. This raised a critical question: What is the total contribution of all media and advertising to Canada’s gross domestic product? However, the economics of the local media ecosystem in a country have not been studied in Canada or around the world.”

Thompson says the report isn’t about evaluating the estimated $26 billion invested in advertising in Canada, it’s about the jobs connected to those dollars staying in the market.

“What this report won’t tell you is what could have been: what the Canadian media economy might have looked like if those advertising dollars had stayed in the market,” said Thompson. “The post-COVID shift that led to more dollars being invested in platforms has not been reversed. And so, as ad dollars left Canada, they have never come back.”

“This is a call to action for everyone in business, advertising, media, and government to understand how the ripple effect of Canadian media and advertising dollars drives our country and across multiple connected industries – and the power of collective action in this endeavour,” she continued. “This report also informs us of what the economic value of Canadian media was, not what it could be or is today. What is clear is that investing in Canadian media is beneficial for businesses and our country because it is closely connected to our economic future.”

Additional findings include that the media sector’s total economic impact was $22.6 billion in 2023, including “direct, indirect, induced, and spillover impacts.” Relying on data from Statistics Canada, Nordicity estimates that the sector directly provided 138,000 jobs in 2023. Among these jobs, advertising, public relations, and related services contributed over 40% of the total at 56,700 jobs. Radio and television broadcasting, together with discretionary television, remain significant employers, contributing almost 20% of the total, or 24,500 jobs. Newspaper, periodical, and directory publishing (excluding book publishing) supported an estimated 19,400 jobs.

According to Statistics Canada data cited in the report, traditional media platforms lost over 11,000 jobs between 2019 and 2024. Newspaper employment experienced the most significant job losses, shedding nearly 7,693 jobs between 2019-24 – just over 30% of its 2019 workforce. Radio and television broadcasters – which depend far more on advertising revenue – lost 3,232 jobs in the same period, or over 14% of their 2019 workforce. Despite tapping into both advertising and monthly subscriber fees, pay and specialty television services still lost over 400 jobs from 2019-24, or just over 9% of its 2019 workforce.

“Sustaining and supporting Canadian media and advertising sector will require coordinated efforts from industry and policy makers to ensure its economic and cultural contributions are fully recognized,” the report stated.

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Authored by the Vancouver think tank’s Senior Fellow and Addington Chair in Measurement, Steven Globerman, Promoting Efficient Competition in Canadian Telecommunications and Broadcasting maintains that particularly in the telecom space, competition has been too tightly managed by successive governments.

“Telecommunications and broadcasting are both vitally important to the economic health of a nation, and yet in Canada, both suffer from inefficient competition, which means Canadians suffer through more limited service offerings and high prices,” said Globerman.

Globerman suggests that with the emergence of Quebecor as a fourth national carrier, behind Rogers, Bell, and TELUS, the justification for regulated competition no longer holds.

The report says going forward, government policy in the telecom sector should focus on promoting efficient competition by eliminating all restrictions on foreign ownership except in cases where national security might be compromised. Globerman also writes that public policy in broadcasting has been too focused on subsidizing the production and distribution of Canadian content, which incumbent broadcasters largely pass on to consumers resulting in higher prices for streaming and other services.

“The subsidy scheme can be a barrier to entry or expansion, particularly for streaming services that are uncertain about their competitive ability to be profitable in the face of an effective tax on their revenues beyond a minimum revenue threshold. Efficiency and transparency argue for subsidizing Canadian content through general taxes if the relevant subsidy scheme is maintained,” Globerman writes. “Removing restrictions on foreign ownership of conventional broadcasters and cable companies would also enhance contestability in the sector.”

“Public policy in both the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors has been directed at objectives other than promoting efficient competition, and the result has been less innovation, more limited choice of products and services and higher prices for Canadians,” said Globerman.

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