Podcast listening in Canada catches up to US level with 1 in 4 being regular podcast listeners according to The Infinite Dial 2020 Canada, the third annual study of digital media behaviour in Canada from Edison Research and Triton Digital. The study was based on a representative sample of 1076 Canadian adults aged 18 and older was conducted in the first quarter of 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic. 37% of Canadians age 18 and older are monthly podcast listeners (compared with 37% in the US) and 24% of those in Canada are weekly podcast listeners (compared with 23% in the US).
The Infinite Dial 2020 Canada key findings
- 70% of Canadian adults have listened to some type of online audio in the past month (compared with 67% in the US) and 60% have listened to online audio in the past week (compared with 58% in the US).
- Online audio has not yet made its way into the car for most Canadians. Of those who have driven or ridden in a car in the last month, 18% have listened to online audio in-car, compared with 33% of those in the US. 57% of adults in Canada use AM/FM radio most often as their in-car audio source while 27% use owned music (including owned digital files) most often in-car, followed by SiriusXM at 7%, online audio at 4% and podcasts at 4%.
- 69% of adults in Canada have listened to AM/FM radio in the past week, and 14% of adults in Canada have listened to AM/FM radio online in the past week.
- 26% of Canadian adults own at least one smart speaker, and of those owners, 42% own two or more devices.
- 81% of podcast listeners in Canadian adults have listened to a podcast at home and 40% have listened in a car/truck
80% of adult Canadian podcast consumers listen to all or most of a typical podcast episode - Half of adult podcast listeners in Canada have listened to a podcast from a public radio producer
- 14% of Canadian adults who own a smart speaker own a Google Home smart speaker, 11% own an Amazon Alexa, and 3% own an Apple HomePod
- The dominant brand of online audio is Spotify, with 28% of Canadian adults listening to Spotify in the past month, compared with Apple Music at 13% and Google Play Music at 11%. Of those who use various online audio brands, 37% say they use Spotify most often.
The Infinite Dial 2020 Canada report is freely available and can be downloaded here.
