Let’s go back 4 years, (there was the tsunami, the Athens Olympics, Arsenal won the Premiership and Peter Andre re-released Mysterious Girl…..cool, you’re with me now!) well, most people wouldn’t have had a clue what a podcast was!

4 years on and more than 6 million people in the UK have now listened to or downloaded a podcast. The average amount of time spent listening has now risen to more than an hour per week and the number that people are subscribing to continues to show steady growth.

But as we look to improve our podcast offering, it’s important to ask ‘what are people listening to?’ and ‘Are we, in the UK, different to people around the rest of the podcasting world?’

Take the following with as big a pinch of salt as goes into your favourite S*bway meatball 8 foot long baguette, but I took a look at the iTunes top 100 podcast charts from countries around the world (that was a rip-roaring night in I promise you). The iTunes chart has long been hailed by many as the measure of success, but to many people in the know….it’s got its flaws. Whichever way you look at it though, it’s worth consideration.

Anyway, it seems here in the UK, the amount of podcasting from radio stations in the top 100 was the second biggest (55%). That’s thanks largely to the BBC which accounts for 44 of the 55. Radio 4 enjoys the biggest success but unsurprisingly that’s largely down to the amount of speech programming.

Ireland had 59% radio (with the BBC joined by RTE and Newstalk in making up the bulk of the podcasts), Australia also does incredibly well, but again it’s amazing how much BBC content is listened to alongside commercial and the ABC network).

In the USA, television programme spin-offs do really well, here in the UK newspaper podcasts can be proud of having 7 podcasts in the top 100 (and some of the best material). Ireland and New Zealand have higher figures from newspapers too.

One interesting angle is the popularity of ‘learn a language’ podcasts. It seems our Italian and Spanish friends are the keenest to learn ‘where is the post office?’ (……errrr, if it’s in England, ‘Shut’ is probably the answer). America, unsurprisingly, has the lowest level of language podcasts (just 2 of 100 podcasts). Learning English is the most common podcast, but there’s a surprising amount of Japanese/Chinese too. Maybe we should be offering our listeners more of this kind of material and create revenue from it, by teaming up with a lovely sponsor. ‘Hello is that XXXXX airline…..fancy working on a podcast where your customers can learn the lingo of the country they’re visiting?’

Certain podcasts are also popular around the world and crop up in a number of charts, showing the power of a global brand – step forward Ricky Gervais, The Economist, Lost and David Guetta.

So, apart from radio shows what else are people listening to? Well, it’s interesting that we have one of the lowest levels of independently produced podcasts in the top 100 – just 26. Germany has the biggest number of independent productions in the chart.

Here in the UK, more and more independently produced podcasts are popping up and the standard is improving, given the cost of equipment. Here at Golden Square, we are leading the charge of helping commercial clients to make podcasts with some great success. Clearly we have the experience and know-how, but also, and very importantly, the means to help people promote the podcasts. Telling potential listeners that a podcast exists has been one of the biggest hurdles that podcasters face?

We’ve been working with the Harley Medical Group to make podcasts about their surgical and non-surgical procedures for several months now. While they don’t get the same amount of downloads as Russell Brand, they are incredibly successful (given it’s such a niche area) in removing the myths of cosmetic surgery and educating people about the work that surgeons have been doing for the last 25 years. It’s certainly led to people booking consultation.

So, there you go – the power of the BBC is certainly driving podcast listening in the UK (and around the world) but you could argue that while people are downloading one of Auntie’s podcasts, they may just find something else, therefore driving up all podcasting in the UK.

Right, I’m off to find out Slovakia’s most popular podcast.

Paul