Podcasts popular with Trekkies, Mac users

To whom should you be targeting your podcasts? Apple Computer users, Trekkies and maybe Nike lovers, according to a new survey.

Macworld is the No. 1 most-visited content site by people who download audio podcasts, according to media research group Nielsen/NetRatings, while StarTrek.com is the most visited content site among video podcast downloaders.

The report (click for PDF) is based on an ongoing survey conducted from 2005 to the present, according to a spokeswoman for the company. The survey asks actively online U.S. adults to answer questions about their behavior "within the last 30 days."

Among those surveyed, 51.6 percent said they paid bills online, and 24.6 percent participated in online job hunting. E-mailing is still the most popular online activity at 92.7 percent, with news reading (71.5 percent) and weather checking (63.9 percent) in second and third place, respectively. Compared with those statistics, downloading podcasts is still a relatively unpopular activity.

Overall, 6.6 percent of adults said they had downloaded audio podcasts within the last 30 days, and 4 percent had downloaded video podcasts. Since the question has only been recently added to the survey, according to the Nielsen/NetRatings spokeswoman, there is no data available for 2004 to allow for a growth comparison. (Blogging came in even lower at 4.8 percent.)

"We can expect to see (podcast downloading) become increasingly popular as portable content media players proliferate," said Michael Lanz, a Nielsen/NetRatings analyst.

Internet users in the 18-to-24 age group are twice as likely to download audio podcasts than the average online adult. When it comes to video podcasts, however, the 25-to-34 age group downloads the most, and follow a close second for audio downloads, the report said.

The majority of people who download audio or video podcasts use Safari, hinting that Apple users may download the most podcasts. Firefox came in second overall. Internet Explorer came in a distant third among audio podcast downloaders, and AOL was third among video podcast downloaders.

Audio downloaders also seem to be interested in sneakers. According to the report, the No. 1 e-commerce site among audio downloaders was Niketown.com, not a music-downloading site as one might expect. (The site is Nike's official online store, not a Web site affiliated with the Nike+iPod playlists.) In fact, iTunes came in third. Apple's Web site was second.

The statistic is particularly interesting given the recent Nike+iPod sneaker launch. But is the coincidence a cause or an effect?

[ServedUp]

Wow.

Wow! <br /><br />CNET is just dying to put Apple news no matter how lame the <br />story is. Gee, what a very informative article. <br /><br />Next I guess we'll here something about the Argo product.. X-<br />toy that Microsoft is putting out. Its great to see Microsoft in <br />action again.. X-Player or Argo is definitely going to help the <br />world move forward.. and I can't wait to add my money to the <br />billions of dollars Microsoft has in the bank.<br /><br />Wait to go Microsoft!!! Yooohooo

[lesfilip]

Bizarre but interesting article...

but it only shows that users of podcast content are forward <br />thinkers, not wackos.<br /><br />It is not surprising that a big fraction of podcast downloaders use <br />Macs, as users of other operating systems are often times too busy <br />rebooting to learn anything new ; )<br /><br />Have a nice day!

[sickboy76]

what an idiot

it seems that this guy along with many others likes to stroke his own ego by congratulating themselves on purchasing what they consider the rolls royce of the computing world. get over it! just because you got a mac doesn't make you any better, you just got out of paying bill g. some money. but now you got a machine that can't run alot of stuff everyone else in the world can. yeah you got ipod before it was cool. but everyone else had mp3 players before ipod was out, and i can play those songs on my car cd player, computer and my home entertainment system without buying extra crap to hook it up. so you may save time on your boot cycle, a few seconds maybe if you have a halfway up to date computer. but use it to learn like you said. instead of buying junk bc every celebrity was given one free or because you saw 30 comercials on tv and 12 ads in mags yesterday, look on line with your screaming fast mac and see what else is out there. live up the the little ego strokes you give yourself on these threads, and be foreward thinking for real. actualy think for yourself and buy what's the best, not what has the most advertising behind it. ms leads the industry. period... not because i see microsoft running tv adds talking s about mac, but because it is superior. the only people to believe the mac comercials are sheep who shop at the gap and old nave, drive a vw because it has an ipod outlet, shop trader joes and wifi at starbucks. you are buying the image, not the product. your ipod blows and it cost 20 times more than an mp3 player. your mac, well, their new thing is "now you can run windows" what the "f". get a clue. and believe it or not i read and responded to this all on the "other operating system" and i didn't evern reboot once. wow...

Podcasts popular

CNET is a little late with this info, arent't they? Podcasts have been around for a while now.<br /><a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.techknowcafe.com/content/view/551/43/" target="_newWindow">http://www.techknowcafe.com/content/view/551/43/</a><br />Can't believe it took them this long to recognize podcasting popularity. Their next revelation article is going to be about how HTML is used to build websites.

[Thrudheim]

Statistics are misinterpreted

I was very surprised and fascinated when I first read this article. <br />It would be amazing, if true, that the majority of podcast <br />downloaders use Safari, but this statement is based on very <br />significant errors in interpretation of the statistics.<br /><br />If you read the pdf of the actual report, what you see is that the <br />typical person who downloads podcasts is three times more <br />likely to use Safari than is the average web user. In the U.S., <br />Safari has a bit over 3% share of average web browsing, so <br />roughly 10% of people downloading podcasts use Safari.<br /><br />In contrast, 85% of web use is done with Internet Explorer, but <br />the proportion of IE use among people who download podcasts <br />is lower than average. Specifically, it about .88 of the overall <br />rate, according to the survey, so somewhere around 75% of <br />people who download podcasts use IE.<br /><br />So the article is quite wrong.<br /><br />Similarly, the article is completely wrong to report that Macworld <br />is the most popular website among people who download <br />podcasts. The more accurate interpretation is that people in the <br />group who download podcasts were 6 times more likely to visit <br />Macworld than people overall.<br /><br />So, yes, Apple's efforts at bringing podcasts to wider use does <br />mean that Mac users are overrepresented among podcast <br />listeners, but the base population of Mac users is so small that <br />they are still in a minority even when overrepresented.<br /><br />Finally, with respect to the Nike conclusion, it is completely <br />wrong to say that Niketown.com is the #1 commerce site for <br />podcast listeners. It is much more likely Amazon.com or some <br />other major retailer. How many shoes can one buy? The correct <br />conclusion is that the ratio of the rate of use of Niketown.com <br />among podcast listeners to the rate of use of that site by <br />average web users is higher than the respective ratios of <br />podcast/non-podcast listeners for the other web commerce <br />sites.

[Thrudheim]

Statistics Misinterpreted

Apologies if this turns out to be a double post . . . got the error <br />message upon submitting the first time.<br /><br />I was very surprised and fascinated when I first read this article. <br />It would be amazing, if true, that the majority of podcast <br />downloaders use Safari, but this statement is based on very <br />significant errors in interpretation of the statistics.<br /><br />If you read the pdf of the actual report, what you see is that the <br />typical person who downloads podcasts is three times more <br />likely to use Safari than is the average web user. In the U.S., <br />Safari has a bit over 3% share of average web browsing, so <br />roughly 10% of people downloading podcasts use Safari.<br /><br />In contrast, 85% of web use is done with Internet Explorer, but <br />the proportion of IE use among people who download podcasts <br />is lower than average. Specifically, it about .88 of the overall <br />rate, according to the survey, so somewhere around 75% of <br />people who download podcasts use IE.<br /><br />So the article is quite wrong.<br /><br />Similarly, the article is completely wrong to report that Macworld <br />is the most popular website among people who download <br />podcasts. The more accurate interpretation is that people in the <br />group who download podcasts were 6 times more likely to visit <br />Macworld than people overall.<br /><br />So, yes, Apple's efforts at bringing podcasts to wider use does <br />mean that Mac users are overrepresented among podcast <br />listeners, but the base population of Mac users is so small that <br />they are still in a minority even when overrepresented.<br /><br />Finally, with respect to the Nike conclusion, it is completely <br />wrong to say that Niketown.com is the #1 commerce site for <br />podcast listeners. It is much more likely Amazon.com or some <br />other major retailer. How many shoes can one buy? The correct <br />conclusion is that the ratio of the rate of use of Niketown.com <br />among podcast listeners to the rate of use of that site by <br />average web users is higher than the respective ratios of <br />podcast/non-podcast listeners for the other web commerce <br />sites.

[Lucky Lou]

Excellent perspective

Statistics get wrangled in all kinds of directions. Did you know <br />65% of all statistics are fabricated?<br /><br />Here's more perspective: 25-34 year-olds are more active video <br />podcast downloaders than 18-24 year-olds, yes, but probably <br />only because they are the ones more likely to be able to afford <br />video iPods because they have jobs and 18-24 year-olds <br />generally don't have that kind of dough. It has nothing to do <br />with one group liking that kind of stuff more than the other, it's <br />financial ability to use it.

[sickboy76]

money, that's the reason?

correct me if i am wrong, but isn't it true that you can just watch the video on any old pc? a person would not have to buy a video ipod in order to watch a podcast. only an idiot would buy a video ipod just to watch a podcast. i mean, don't you have to hook your video ipod up to a computer in order to get that podcast on your ipod in the first place? so even if one could not afford the video ipod they would still be able to watch the podcast if they were so inclined. financial status or availability would then be negated as a factor for younger people to watch video podcasts. they just have other interests. not that they are doing anything better, they are probably too busy updating thier myspace account for the billionth time. but anyway, i don't think that money is the reason, young users are usually quite able to get what they want without forking over the dough. older people usualy just buy what they are told will work best. podcast, i must need an ipod then. not true. it must be something else.