U.S. Adults Warming Up To Podcasts

More than 6 percent of U.S. adults, or 9 million Web users, have downloaded podcasts in the last 30 days, a research firm said.

While still very young, the medium has made inroads among online adults, Nielesen Analytics said in a report released this week. Fully 38 percent of podcast downloaders said they were listening to less radio.

While the number of users appears small, Nielsen Analytics believed podcasting had established itself among consumers who prefer more control over the media they access.

"This exciting new medium has only just begun to stretch its legs," Larry Gerbrandt, general manager and senior vice president of Nielsen Analytics, said in a statement.

The report is based on a survey of more than 1,700 people in the first quarter of this year. Nielsen found that the most popular podcasts garner as many as 2 million downloads a month, and have attracted mainstream advertising.Bad news for advertisers is that 60 percent of podcast listeners fast forward past commercials, Nielsen found. As a result, there's a trend among marketers to embed ads within program content, or having podcast hosts endorse products and services.

Nielsen also found that the average podcast is 44 minutes. The average length, however, could decrease, if video podcasts, which tend to be briefer, grow in popularity.

Fully 72 percent of survey respondents who download podcasts said they did so one to three times a week. About 10 percent said they downloaded eight or more of the audio files each week.