---
title: "Podcasts Proliferate"
description: "As the array of individuals and mainstream media institutions providing podcasts has expanded rapidly -- as well as the types of digital multimedia content available from the internet -- so too has the audience for downloadable video, images and text."
date: "2006-11-27"
authors:
  - name: "Pew Research Center"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/2006/11/27/podcasts-proliferate/"
---

# Podcasts Proliferate

by Mary Madden

As the array of individuals and mainstream media institutions providing podcasts has expanded rapidly -- as well as the types of digital multimedia content available from the internet -- so too has the audience for downloadable video, images and text.

A recent survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project finds some 12% of internet users, roughly 17 million adults, say they have downloaded a podcast so they can listen to it or view it at a later time. This estimate reflects an increase from the 7% of internet users -- about 10 million adults -- who reported podcast downloading in our February-April 2006 survey. However, few internet users are downloading podcasts with great frequency; just 1% report downloading a podcast on a typical day.

Men are more likely than women to report podcast downloading; 15% of online men say they have downloaded a podcast, compared with just 8% of online women. And those with more than six years of online experience are twice as likely as those with less than three years of internet use to have downloaded a podcast (13% vs. 6%).

![Figure](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/old-assets/obdeck/98-1.gif)