The number of people listening to podcasts in Taiwan has reached half the number of those listening to traditional radio programs, a National Communications Commission (NCC) broadcasting market investigation report said.
The report said that 17.3 percent of people above the age of 16 listen to traditional radio programs, 8.9 percent listen to podcasts and 5.7 percent listen to radio programs over the Internet.
Nearly 73 percent said they do not listen to any podcasts or traditional radio programs.
Photo: Ting Yi, Taipei Times
The report said 18.2 percent of podcast listeners were aged 16 to 25, with interest waning as people grew older.
Fewer than 1 percent of podcast listeners were over the age of 66, it said.
About 23.5 percent of traditional radio listeners were aged 46 to 55, while those aged 16 to 25 only comprised 10.7 percent of conventional radio listeners, it said.
The audience of traditional radio programs is passive and is constrained by the time of the program or the topic discussed by the host on a given day, said Liao Ching (廖靖), podcast manager of Comma School (逗點學校).
He added that radio program hosts also have a relatively higher vocational qualification threshold.
The audiences actively search for whichever podcasts they wish to listen to, without radio stations dictating the length or the topic of podcasts, he said.
While most podcast listeners are 23 to 44 years old, if the popularity of podcasts continues to rise, older people might begin accepting the medium as well, Liao said.
Competition between podcasting and traditional radio does not need to be a “zero-sum” game, said Tu Sheng-tsung (杜聖聰), chairman of Ming Chuan University’s radio and television department.
The broadcast industry still has much room to grow, as audiobooks and other derivative media show, Tu said, adding that he was more concerned with how podcasters would be able to turn a profit and keep the industry afloat, as Taiwan has a small audience base.
Traditional radio programs are encountering the issue of an aging audience, and creating YouTube channels to broaden their audience bases might be one of the solutions, Tu said.
The NCC poll was conducted from March 14 to April 24 last year and targeted people aged 16 or older. It received 1,346 valid responses and claimed a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS