54 Podcast Statistics in France to Know in 2024

The podcast industry is evolving year after year around the world. And this phenomenon is also visible in France, where more and more people claim to listen to podcasts regularly. 🎙️

Today, you can find podcasts in all themes(news, health, business, etc.). Although this audio format has been around for a long time, it’s only been a few years since the podcast became really popular.

If you’re interested in theworld of podcasting, we’re going to show you some statistics interesting statistics about this type of audio content in France. 📈

The different statistics on the podcasting universe

The podcast is emerging in France and therefore it is always interesting to see who the listeners, creators and others are. But it is important to understand that the podcast has also become a real industry and a separate communication channel. 🗣️

As a result, podcasts are now favored by brands, but also by content creators of all kinds.

Please note that all these statistics are for France only. If you want to know more about podcasting in the world or in the United States for example, we invite you to read articles that talk specifically about it.

Now, let’s see who are the French who listen to podcasts on a daily basis! ⤵️

Who are the listeners?

To begin with, you should know that the majority of French people listen to at least one audio content per day. It can be radio, a podcast, music or an audio book. However, here we will only focus on podcasts.

In terms of numbers:

• 200 million podcast episodes are listened to every month in France(March 2022).
• According to a survey, 1 out of 2 French people has already listened to a podcast.
• Among them, 42% listen to podcasts for entertainment and 43% for information, especially on current events. 🗞️
• Among those who have never listened to a podcast, 20% plan to listen in the future.

The most popular listening platform is without a doubt Apple Podcasts . For the most part, what appeals is its ease of access, since the application is installed directly on Apple branded devices. Free access is also a key element for the majority of listeners.

Also read: The 10 best platforms to host a podcast

Next to it, Spotify is the second most used platform, followed by Deezer. (Statistica)

• In 2019, all podcasts had 10.9 million monthly listeners.
• In 2020, it will be 12.5 million and in 2021, 15 million monthly listeners.
• For 2022, the number of listeners per month has increased to 17.6 million.

There is clearly a rapid progression and a boom related to the Covid period. 😷

*A monthly listener is someone who listens to a podcast at least once a month.

Among the podcasts listened to, we often talk about native podcasts. A native podcast is simply audio content created solely for a podcasting platform. Conversely, if a radio show publishes a podcast, it will not be a native podcast.

Thanks to the various surveys conducted, we can determine which type of person listens to podcasts regularly. To begin with, it is important to know that more than half of the listeners are women. 👩‍🦳

If we focus on native podcasts:

• 60% of their audience is under 35 years old.
• Conversely, podcasts of radio programs like France Inter are listened to mostly by people over 50.
• More interestingly, 63% of parents who listen to podcasts say they want their children to listen too. Mainly so that they can get information.

Through various surveys, we can also determine the socio-occupational category of podcast listeners. The majority of them live in the city and 27% are executives. Students are also among the most popular podcast listeners.

In terms of chronology, it is important to know that listeners listen to podcasts during the week as well as on the weekend. As for the schedules :

• 37% of listeners prefer to listen to podcasts in the morning,
• versus 21% in the evening.

Finally, the average listening time of a podcast is 44 minutes(study on the 1000 most listened podcasts). However, many publishers say they prefer short formats, between 5 and 15 minutes. 🕐

Why do listeners listen to podcasts?

As you know, more and more people are listening to at least one podcast on a regular basis. But there are several reasons why French people listen to podcasts. As we have seen above, the French listen mainly to audio content for information or entertainment.

Thus:

• 43% of regular listeners say they listen to podcasts for information.
• Most of them are looking for information on current events, but 10% use the podcast to learn about a particular subject.

For many, the podcast is seen as a closer relationship with a media than TV or radio for example. Thus, we can see several interesting statistics related to the podcast universe and the well-being of the French. For example, 82% of listeners think that podcasts are a way to refocus on oneself.

Like other audio content such as music, most podcast listeners do something else while listening to an episode. Only 15% of them focus solely on the podcast they are listening to. Among all the others, several activities stand out in addition to listening:

• Browsing the internet or social networks 📱
• Cooking 🍳
• Take a rest 💆‍♂️
• Sport / Bodybuilding 🏋️‍♀️
• Household 🧹
• Walking around 🦮

Despite appearances, driving is not the most important activity performed while listening to a podcast.

No matter what activity you do on the side, many say thatlistening to podcasts has become a habit. Indeed:

• For 79% of listeners, listening to podcasts has become part of their routine.
• 28% listen to podcasts every day, 30% every 3 to 5 days and 42% once a week.(Paris Podcast Festival)

Let’s move on to an important topic in content creation, audience retention. Thanks to the Acast Barometer n°12 of October 2022 on native podcasts in France, we can observe a lot of statistics on this loyalty. 🤝🏾

For example, you can see the retention rate by content type. For information, the retention rate is the average number of podcasts listened to by a listener over a month.

The type of podcast that has the highest retention rate is about family and parenting in general. Underneath, you will find audio content on health and well-being. After that, the current affairs , especially politics and business, and finally, entertainment. 🛋️

On the other hand, we can also see that the more a podcast is published, the higher its retention rate will be.

For example:

• A podcast that releases an episode every day has an average retention rate of 4.2.
• The retention rate drops to 2.3 for podcasts that publish one episode per month.

Finally, we also have the retention rate by platform. Even though Apple podcast does well, we can clearly see that listeners of “smaller” podcast platforms are much more loyal. 💪

What type of podcasts are listened to?

As you have seen, the main purpose of podcasts is to inform or entertain. If we take the example of the most listened to podcasts in France, we clearly notice that this statement is respected:

The most listened podcast in France(September 2022 – ACPM) is Transfer from Slate media. This native podcast nests in the Society category and tells stories of “ordinary” people. It averages over one million downloads per month.

The second most listened podcast is the News of the day of the Youtubeur Hugo Décrypte. Here we are purely on a podcast that covers political, economic, sports, international and other news. 🌏

Among the Top 10 most listened to podcasts in France, we naturally find news summaries, entertainment/humor, social topics, but also more informative podcasts.

Secondly, it is important to know that 63% of listeners are looking for new podcasts(Paris Podcast Festival). However, a good number of listeners use the podcast to listen to only one show for example.

So let’s see how the French are discovering new podcasts to listen to. 👀

To find new podcasts:

• 35% of listeners are content to look at recommendations from streaming platforms(Apple Podcast, Spotify, Deezer and others).
• 36% discover new programs thanks to recommendations from their friends and family.

However, we notice that finding podcasts to listen to is not necessarily that simple:

• While 87% of regular listeners say they find new podcasts easily,
• Only 63% of casual listeners can say the same.

You probably know this, but a podcast can be downloaded. Instead of listening to it via wifi or cellular data, a listener will download it to listen to later without the need for an internet connection. And all these downloads allow us to see some interesting statistics.

For example, 8 out of 10 downloaded podcasts are listened to in full(Harris Media).

Who are the creators?

Now that we’ve seen who listens to podcasts and what their consumption habits are, let’s talk about audio content creators.

Among the creators:

• only 30% are women;
• 6% of podcasts are presented by a man and a woman;
• And 60% are led by a man alone. 🧔🏻

Among the creators of podcasts, 30% talk about social issues. In terms of creators, 60% of podcasts fall into the entertainment or political category.

Both men and women, the majority of podcast creators are between 26 and 39 years old(56%). While the 40/55 age group represents 40% of creators.

If we establish statistics according to gender, we notice that there are more young female creators than male creators. Indeed:

• 77% of the creators are between 26 and 39 years old,
• while 48% of the creators belong to this age group.

Thanks to the 2022 Acast Barometer, we can determine precisely the age range of creators:

Finally, several surveys confirm that children’s podcasts are hosted by both men and women. 🤝🏼

Podcasting and advertising

As you’ve seen, all podcasts attract millions of listeners every month. As a result, many brands are interested in advertising on them. Some time ago, very few podcasts contained an ad or sponsor. 📣

Given the popularity of podcasts, more and more brands are interested in this communication channel. Let’s see the numbers(Study of the French and the native podcast – Paris Podcast Festival):

• 77% of listeners who heard an ad in a podcast wanted to find out more about the advertiser.
• 70% wanted to buy a product after hearing an ad in a podcast. This is quite an impressive statistic and far superior to other communication channels. (43% for Google Ads for example – Clutch.co)

In the podcast world, there are two ways to promote a product. A brand can integrate an advertisement during the playback of a podcast, like a radio commercial for example. Or, the brand can do some sponsorship “. In this case, it is the creator who introduces his brand to his listeners, in the manner of a product placement. 🗣️

In fact, podcast episode sponsorship has increased 143% since 2019. As far as advertisers are concerned, the most successful podcasts for sponsorship are related to business, tech and banking/insurance. (Acast Barometer – June 2022)

In terms of the presence of advertisements:

• 54% of listeners consider it“suitable“;
• and only 36% find that advertising is too present in podcasts.

As a reminder, two thirds of podcast listeners listen to audio content via the free application model. Thus, they are subject to the presence of advertising for podcasts, as for music and other audio content.

The Acast barometer also gives several tips to advertisers. On the one hand, they advise to check the audience figures of a podcast. This can be done thanks to the Alliance Pour Les Chiffres De La Presse et des Médias(ACPM), which counts the audience of French podcasts.

On the other hand, Acast recommends targeting podcasts with a high retention rate. That way, an advertising message will have much more impact. 📈

While some brands decide to place ads in other people’s podcasts, some companies are creating their own. In this way, they attract new customers and inform them about their offers. Let’s see in practice how a podcast can be beneficial for a company.

Among those who listen to at least one podcast per week, 87% think that offering a podcast to present their brand is a good way to communicate. Next to that, 78% would like to see the brands they like offer a podcast.

Thanks to this study, we notice that the podcast allows to gain notoriety, but also credibility. For example:

• 82% of listeners believe thata podcast brings a brand closer to its consumers;
• 80% think it would make the brand more innovative;
• 75% that it would be more responsible;
• And 73% that it would be more credible. 👔

As you can see, a podcast reinforces the image of a brand. But creating audio content can also sell more:

• 73% of listeners claim to have discovered at least one new brand through their podcast.
• 68% consider buying a product after listening to a brand’s podcast.
• 65% of listeners changed their perception of a brand/company after listening to their podcast.

In short, the podcast universe is a communication channel that is still underused and therefore underestimated. There are not many advertisers on streaming platforms yet. So in our opinion, this is one of the most profitable advertisements that can be done to date. 😎

In conclusion

Now you know more about thepodcasting industry in France. If you want to learn more about how to start your own podcast and make a living from your audio content, you’ll find several articles on this subject on the blog.

If you just want to listen to a podcast about entrepreneurship and web publishing, we invite you to listen to our podcast “Les Makers” on YouTube and all streaming platforms.