the podcast market | Italy

1.1 Definition and scope of study

A podcast is an audio content distributed via RSS (Really Simple Syndication). The podcast can be native, i.e. created in first intention to be a podcast, or replay, meaning taken from a broadcast and transformed into replay content. 

The word podcast comes from the contraction of the words "iPod" and "broadcast", a word coined in 2004 to refer to the rise of this type of content in the United States since the early 2000s.

The podcast market surged in 2020 with 900,000 podcasts created worldwide. For comparison, only a little over 300,000 podcasts had been created in 2019. Estimated to be a multibillion-dollar market, the compound annual growth rate is estimated at 24.6% between 2020 and 2026. The convenience and ease of use of this format is driving the market. In fact, technological advances, the ability to perform various tasks while listening to a podcast, as well as the effortless distribution of open educational resources are the elements that contribute to the success of podcasts.

The Italian market is following the global trend. The first Italian podcast was launched in 2004 by Jacopo Fo. In 2014, the American podcast Serial democratized the podcast market in Italy. Now, the most listened podcasts in Italy are Muschio Selvaggio, Il podcast di Alessandro Barbero: Lezioni e Conferenze di Storia and La Zanzara.

The Italian market has almost 26,000 podcasts, of which 42.25% were created in 2020. In August 2021, the production of podcasts has exceeded the production of 2019, and represents 21.63% of the total production of Italian podcasts. 

These increases are also partly due to the Covid 19 pandemic. In fact, between December 2019 and March 2020, podcast listening increased by 50%. Not limited to listening, Italians are also discovering themselves as content producers. Since March 3, in the midst of the containment period, podcast production has increased by 600% in the education category, and 700% in the free time category.