YouGov: Podcast Genre Preferences Remain Split Sharply Along Gender Lines.

Podcast audiences may be growing across every major genre, but new research from YouGov shows men and women are often tuning into very different content — and in some genres they’re also consuming it in different ways.

The market research firm finds the biggest gender divide in podcasting centers on sports, where men are five-times more likely than women to say they regularly listen to or watch sports podcasts. The study also reveals sizable differences in news, true crime, technology and self-improvement programming, offering advertisers and publishers a more detailed look at how podcast audiences vary by genre.

News and current affairs is the most popular podcast genre overall, with half of U.S. podcast consumers saying they regularly listen to or watch that type of programming. But YouGov found a noticeable gender gap, with 56% of men consuming news podcasts versus 44% of women.

Sports produced the widest gender divide in the survey. Three in ten men said they regularly consume sports podcasts versus just 6% of women. Technology and science podcasts also skew heavily male, attracting 28% of men versus 11% of women.

Yet when sports fans do consume podcasts, format appears to matter less than access to content. YouGov VP Dare Schenck noted on recent webinar that sports audiences showed almost no difference between audio and video podcast consumption.

“That speaks volumes to people that are consuming anything sports related,” Schenck said. “They just want to hear about their team or whatever’s going on. They don’t really care what medium they’re going to hear it from or watch it from.”

Women, meanwhile, over-index in several of podcasting’s most popular genres. True Crime remains one of the medium’s biggest draws overall, but women are considerably more likely than men to consume the genre, 35% tune in versus 27% of men. Women also report higher engagement with education and self-improvement podcasts (25% vs. 16%), lifestyle shows (17% vs. 12%) and health and wellness programming (18% vs. 14%).

The report also suggests that not every genre is making the same transition to video. While video podcast consumption is generally higher across most categories, education and self-improvement stands out as an exception, with audiences continuing to favor audio over video. During the webinar, YouGov’s Clifton Mark said the finding reflects how many listeners use those podcasts while multitasking.

“The education, self-improvement audience is a little bit more audio,” Mark said, describing those listeners as “higher-income multitaskers” who are often consuming podcasts while commuting, exercising or doing other activities.

By contrast, entertainment, comedy, true crime and several other genres tend to see stronger engagement through video, underscoring that audience preferences increasingly depend not only on what listeners are consuming, but also how they prefer to consume it.

Not every genre shows a gender divide. YouGov says comedy podcasts attract nearly identical audiences, with 31% of men and 29% of women listening or watching regularly. Entertainment and pop culture podcasts are similarly balanced, drawing 32% of men and 29% of women.

The findings are part of YouGov’s “More Than Meets The Ear” report on the podcast market. Download the full report HERE.