A PODCASTING FUTURE

India's podcast scene explodes with formats and listeners, primed for digital growth, with high-quality content reigning supreme

In our content era, consumers are devouring stories in all forms – visual, written, and audio. While audio-visual content reigns supreme, audio is experiencing a surge in popularity, particularly podcasts. This has resulted in a thriving podcast industry in India.

According to the FY24 PWC Global Entertainment and Media outlook report, India boasted 57.6 million monthly listeners in 2019, making it the world’s third-largest podcast market after the US and China. Even more exciting, the number of listeners is estimated to grow at a staggering 30.4% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2020 and 2024. With this kind of growth, let’s explore the remarkable journey of the Indian podcast industry in the past three years.

THE JOURNEY

Podcasts, a term coined by BBC journalist Ben Hammersley in 2004, are like on-demand radio shows made for your digital device. This ingenious blend of “iPod” and “broadcast” lets you download and listen to programmes whenever you want.

Over the past two decades, the podcast industry has exploded, evolving into a diverse landscape of formats that have fuelled the surge in audio content consumption.

There are eight main formats that dominate the industry, and understanding their evolution is key to grasping the growth trajectory of India’s podcast scene. These formats have not only fostered dedicated fanbases but also continuously attract new listeners, adding to the industry’s impressive momentum.

Let us understand these formats in detail.

• Interview