Video podcasts are quickly growing, but new research from Morning Consult shows that one genre of podcasts is the ripest for adding the second tier of content. It finds avid sports fans are more receptive to video podcasts than the general population. Roughly two-thirds of big sports fans said they had watched a video podcast in the past month. That compares to four in ten for the population overall.
“In 2024, sports leagues and agents should pursue deals with video streamers like Netflix for live events tied to pro athletes’ video podcasts,” says Morning Consult media analyst Kevin Tran in the latest Morning Consult State of Media & Entertainment Report. He says a show like the video version of Jason and Travis Kelce’s New Heights podcast could have aired on Paramount+ ahead of this year’s Super Bowl, a move that would have generated buzz for the streaming network’s live sports push.
Morning Consult data shows there is also an age difference. Nearly six in ten Millennials and half of Gen Z adults also said they had watched a video podcast in the past month. That compares to Gen X and Baby Boomers, each of which consume video podcasts at a rate less than the population overall.
Morning Consult’s latest update also looked at the listening habits of streaming music services, with music preferences offering a hint to podcasters when it comes to how long to make an episode. It finds that half of Gen Z adults say the use of a music streamer by friends and family is important in their own choice of which to use. Younger consumers also care more about whether public figures they like use a given music streamer.
“This means more music streamers should launch their own Wrapped-like offerings, and platforms already doing so should offer shareable listening data more often,” Tran commends.
Morning Consult also finds that attention spans are getting shorter for music, just like other content. It says the share of Gen Z adults who said they prefer songs that are less than two minutes long is the highest of any generation.
“While the share of Gen Z adults who prefer songs longer than two minutes is still higher than the share who prefer shorter songs, the young cohort’s unique openness to bite-sized songs means more of them should be made,” Tran says. “Shorter tracks could help an artist — or even a film studio using a song for a marketing campaign — generate traction on platforms like YouTube Shorts and Instagram Stories, both of which have 60-second time limits.”
Morning Consult’s report draws from monthly surveys conducted from July 2022 to November 2023 among roughly 2,200 U.S. adults per month. It also includes data from various surveys fielded throughout 2022 and 2023 among representative samples of about 2,200 U.S. adults each.
The results have a margin of error of +/-2%. Download the full report HERE.