Audio, Radio & Podcasts

The transition of the news industry away from print, television and radio into digital spaces has caused huge disruptions in the traditional news industry, especially the print news industry. Today, an overwhelming majority of Americans get news at least sometimes from digital devices.

About eight-in-ten Americans ages 12 and older listen to terrestrial radio in a given week.

Hundreds of local and regional radio and television stations comprise the U.S. public media system.

True crime stands out as the most common topic of top-ranked podcasts in the United States.

True crime is the most common topic, making up 24% of top-ranked podcasts; 15% of the top podcasts focus on news. The next most common topics are politics and government (10%); entertainment, pop culture and the arts (9%); and self-help and relationships (8%).

The audio news sector in the U.S. is split by modes of delivery: traditional terrestrial (AM/FM) radio and digital formats such as online radio and podcasting.

At least half of Black podcast listeners regularly listen to podcasts about entertainment and pop culture; self-help and relationships; comedy; and money and finance.

Roughly half of U.S. adults say they have listened to a podcast in the past year, including one-in-five who report listening at least a few times a week. Most podcast listeners say this experience includes hearing news, which they largely expect to be mostly accurate. Large shares of listeners say they turn to podcasts for entertainment, learning or having something to listen to while doing something else.

The share of Americans who say they often get news from a podcast is quite small, at just 7%; 16% of adults say they sometimes do.

The gender gap in party identification remains the widest in a quarter century.