Political podcasts are causing a stir in election year; Downloads increased by 28% compared to last year. | Story

Less than three weeks before election day, the 2024 election campaign is in its final stages. And while some listeners may be tired of the attack ads, there’s no shortage of interest in the race. Triton Digital worked with Signal Hill Insights to study the impact on political podcast downloads, and they found a booming audience. The data shows that political podcasts saw a 28% increase in downloads year-on-year, with incremental gains over the past six months.

Despite a flood of conservative-leaning podcasts since the last presidential election cycle, the analysis finds that podcast listening continues to be dominated by progressive shows. Triton and Signal Hill say there were twice as many downloads of Democratic-leaning podcasts than Republican-leaning ones. But the number of conservative programs is closing the gap. Although Democrat-affiliated podcasts still make up the majority of the political podcast market, they saw their listenership decline from 58% to 56% year-over-year, while Republican podcasts increased from 23% to 28% of total political podcast downloads.

The analysis shows that podcasts are ideal for campaigns because they tend to appeal to the type of listeners who are more likely to show up to vote on Election Day. Triton and Signal Hill say the demographic profile of political podcast listeners reveals an older, well-educated and affluent audience compared to the overall U.S. population ages 18 and older. It finds that 59.7% are college graduates, 31.9% report a household income of more than $100,000, and nearly half (47.2%) are 55 or older.

However, the data shows some differences based on political persuasion. Although they are still wealthy and educated compared to the overall U.S. population, Republican-leaning podcast listeners’ profiles are below average compared to Democrat- and Independent-leaning podcasts in terms of income, education, and age characteristics. The conservative shows also have the highest proportion (89.9%) of white listeners among the three political orientations.

In contrast, Democratic-leaning podcasts have the highest share (17.4%) of black listeners. And independent political podcasts have the highest share (16.2%) of Hispanic listeners. The data also shows that 68.2% of indie podcast listeners have a college degree and 62.4% are male.