60 Million Podcasters By 2010
Who would have guessed? Everyone doing it of course. Well, it turns out that some analysts at the Diffusion Group have done a study, Podcasting: Fact, Fiction and Opportunity. Here’s a snippet (via Corante/podcasting):
"Today the term 'podcast' refers to almost any online mobile content distribution service," said Marc Freedman, contributing analyst with The Diffusion Group. "It has taken on very general precepts, thus indicative of its status as a service category as opposed to a branded activity."
While the iPod explosion created demand for both portable digital music players and inexpensive, downloadable content, Freedman contends that it wasn't until consumers became aware of personal video recording and the virtues of time-shifting (that is, downloading or saving to consumer media content when most convenient to consumers) that podcasting became a distinct activity.
"Consumers were already accustomed to downloading music for playback on portable devices – this is a well-engrained activity that precedes online digital music," said Freedman. "However, the downloading of online 'audio blogs' for portable on-demand consumption is certainly new. Yes, the roots of podcasting lie in non-commercial amateur blogging, but podcasting's non-commercial status is changing as more businesses begin to find creative ways to use this new delivery medium to push audio content."