Writing for New Media

Business Week has an article this week called "What Podcasting Revolution?" and the BBC has one called "Podcast numbers show 'few hooked.'" Both are based on a recent survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The good news is that the survey found 12 percent of U.S. residents online had downloaded a podcast, up from just 7 percent earlier this year. The bad news is that only 1 percent of the respondents say they download a podcast on a typical day.

Despite its title, the Business Week article offers optimism that podcasts will catch on:

Researchers at the Diffusion Group forecast that 11.4 million Americans will tune into podcasts by the end of this year and 21.7 million Americans—or about 10% of those using the Internet—will download an episode in 2007. "We are going to see it reaching into the mainstream consumer market," explains Andy Tarczon, founding partner of the Diffusion Group. Tarczon is confident of growth because he believes that both the availability of podcasts and the increase in people buying digital media players capable of serving podcasts will increase interest in them.