Ipod (2023) by Mina MondFundación Antonio de Nebrija
More and more content is consumed through mobile devices, and because of this, spoken content (podcasts, audiobooks, voice interfaces...) has gained relevance within digital media consumption platforms.
Podcasts: the jewel in the crown
Podcasts are proclaimed as one of the forms of media with the greatest impact and creative, social, and cultural reach. This is due to their versatility, allowing the listener to simultaneously perform other tasks while consuming audio content.
Radio antigua (2023) by YgankoFundación Antonio de Nebrija
The difference between a podcast and the radio
Podcasts have an advantage over radio in terms of accessibility and availability. Being "a la carte" and pre-recorded on a platform with easy digital access, they provide users with more freedom when choosing the content they want to consume.
It is estimated that the global audience for this content format will reach 1.5 billion monthly listeners by 2026. There were 895 million listeners in 2021.
Episodio de pódcast (2023)Fundación Antonio de Nebrija
Being part of a community
Podcasts encourage social interaction and generate groups: they have a "tribal" component. They create communities that share an individual activity such as listening to content periodically.
Podcasts have developed their own identity: their digital and pre-recorded character gives rise to an elaborate product that integrates voice, music, sound effects, and silences, combined with creative and innovative editing.
Micrófono de radio (2023) by KsuviewFundación Antonio de Nebrija
The oldest Spanish-language audio content platform is iVoox (2008), which functioned as an audio-kiosk where users could freely publish and share audio files. iVoox had 800 million listeners and five million unique users in 2022.
In Spain, the professionalization of the podcast began with the launch of Podium Podcast in June 2016. Since then, the proliferation of the platforms and producers of this type of content has been exponential. The most recent platform is Atresmedia's Sonora (2022).
Ipod (2023)Fundación Antonio de Nebrija
Between 2018 and 2023, more than 100,000 podcasts and almost 25,000 audiobooks were created in Spanish by 430 entities in Spain, Latin America, and the US Hispanic market.
Episodio de pódcast (2023) by Kaleido GraphixFundación Antonio de Nebrija
This is just the beginning
It is expected that by 2026 there will be 26.6 million listeners who consume podcasts in Spanish and €590 million will be generated in terms of advertising, brand content, subscriptions...
La televisión (2023)Fundación Antonio de Nebrija
Consumption of podcasts in Spanish
40% of Spanish podcast listeners subscribe to between four and 10 podcasts and follow them regularly. 20.7% listen to between 10 and 20 podcasts regularly.
La escucha (2023)Fundación Antonio de Nebrija
The types of podcasts that are most listened to in Spanish are in a conversational format (60%), interviews (46%), and narratives or documentaries (47%). Preferred topics include history, humor, current affairs, research, political analysis, and health or wellness.
Radiocaset (2023) by Bor AartFundación Antonio de Nebrija
A very attractive format for young people
People between the ages of 16 and 34 consume the most podcasts in Spanish.
This listener profile prefers for the podcast to be complemented with another content format, which is why video podcasts or VODCASTS are becoming increasingly popular. This is most popular with conversational podcasts, with guests from the same age group.
Episodio de pódcast (2023) by Debut StudioFundación Antonio de Nebrija
Podcasts and learning Spanish
In the teaching of Spanish, the use of podcasts is very useful to aid with the development of the different passive skills through which a language is learned.
Consumption of pre-existing podcasts promotes listening comprehension. Exposure to podcasts specifically designed for language teaching allows content to be consolidated.
Podcasts can also be a means of creation: writing scripts, linguistic supervision, and broadcasting of audio content can be of great help in an educational community of Spanish as a foreign language.
A consolidated sector
The podcast is a mature and consolidated format in the audiovisual industry, which is beginning to have the capacity to more accurately measure the value of its audience, commitment, and return on investment, like other media sources.
Micrófono antiguo (2023) by BadastaradFundación Antonio de Nebrija
Podcasts in Spanish have a booming, wide, diverse, and interesting audience, which will allow the medium to consolidate its creative, cultural, and commercial value quickly.
This article was written following the investigation made by the Observatorio Nebrija del Español: How podcasts sound in Spain - Radiography of original production on digital audio platforms in 2022.
These studies were also consulted: IAB Spain (2023)- Estudio del Audio Digital en España 2023; iVoox (2022)- Informe sobre el consumo de podcast en español. Observatorio iVoox 2022; We Are Social (2023)- Digital 2023- Global Overview Report v01.
Content curation: Aina Arbona
Graphic Editor: Carmen García
Consulting and review: Lola Pons (Universidad de Sevilla)
