The first edition of the „Podcast in România” study, realized by BRAT – Biroul Român de Audit Transmedia (The Romanian Transmedia Audit Bureau), and initiated by Banca Transilvania, reveal surprizing and optimistic data about digital audio content consumption.
- Thinkdigital is partner-agency in this project, a one of a kind premiere for the local market.
The results of the study, gathered between June 17th and July 1st, 2020, have been presented today during the first event dedicated to this new industry, Podfest. It shows that 37,8% of Romanians with ages between 16 and 50 declare themselves as podcast listeners. In absolute, figures: 3,2 million people.
Podcasts are listened to – but, most importantly: they are viewed in their video version – especially in urban areas 44%, but also in rural ones, 29%. Men prefer slightly more this form of content, standing for 54,3% of the listeners. The Romanians from the study group spend 8,4 hours per month listening to a podcast (10 episodes, on average).
The majority of them listen at home, and the most accessed medium to do so, is, surprisingly, Youtube (over 90%), then Facebook (45%). The audio content dedicated apps follow in tow with Spotify (31,4%), Google Podcasts (28%) and other specific platforms.
Another surprising percentage: 73,6% accept or consider as useful the advertising segments within the podcasts, as this is a beginner’s territory and most of the promos are integrated or correlated to the topic of the podcast.
The average income per household of the podcast listeners is of approx. 1.000 EURO (4.883 lei), significantly higher than the average of the media, while 30% of the listeners have higher education.
The most popular podcasts are those produced by already acclaimed personalities.
In this study done on approx. 4.000 subjects, of which 2.000 listen to podcasts, the top one, with 36,4%, was Dragoș Pătraru’s podcast, „Starea Nației”, followed by „România, știi bine” done by the ProTV team (27,2%), ESCA, realized by Andreea Esca (25,4%). The following productions are done by podcasters like Laurențiu Mihai and Sorin Amzu with „Banii Vorbesc” (19,9%), then, the MCN Podcast featuring comedian Cosmin „Micuțu” Nedelcu (19,9%) and George Buhnici with CuriosITy (19,6%).
The entire ranking, featuring other comedians, specialists in various segments, journalists as well as important and relevant info about the podcast market, can be checked in the preview of the study, presented today, and downloadable on the website of Thinkdigital -> partner company in the project, which also manages the first digital audio advertising network dedicated to podcasts.
„The new communication media have lately become relevant to the public and started drawing the attention of clients and advertising agencies. They all need credible and accurate information to help design efficient communication strategies and leverage the right decisions. Long gone is the time of intuition and personal judgement on these new channels; it’s the perfect moment for them to become the topic of whitepapers and documented studies, to be properly analyzed, in comparison to other mass media”
Arina Ureche, general director of BRAT and coordinator of the study.
„I hope that our initiative helps both the creators – from professionals in different industries, to showbiz personalities and influencers, studios and radio stations, as well as companies that are interested in the new audio formats. We have encountered reliable partners, BRAT, THINKDIGITAL and Dragos Stanca and managed to generate this study in record time”, stated Sergiu Mircea, Executive Director with Banca Transilvania.
The „Podcast in România” study presents thorough data about the podcast consumption, in terms of time, devices used, location where it happens, how the content is digested and many other infos.
The full version of the study, with further detailed info, dedicated to the professionals of the industry will be available to the BRAT members, agencies, clients and publishers, on request, at comunicare@brat.ro.
