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.
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
EVA Airways, one of the leading international carriers in Taiwan, yesterday said that it was investigating reports that a cabin crew manager had ignored the condition of a sick flight attendant, who died on Saturday. The airline made the statement in response to a post circulating on social media that said that the flight attendant on an outbound flight was feeling sick and notified the cabin crew manager. Although the flight attendant grew increasingly ill on the return flight, the manager did not contact Medlink — a system that connects the aircraft to doctors on the ground for treatment advice during medical
The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union yesterday vowed to protest at the EVA Air Marathon on Sunday next week should EVA Airway Corp’s management continue to ignore the union’s petition to change rules on employees’ leave of absence system, after a flight attendant reportedly died after working on a long-haul flight while ill. The case has generated public discussion over whether taking personal or sick leave should affect a worker’s performance review. Several union members yesterday protested at the Legislative Yuan, holding white flowers and placards, while shouting: “Life is priceless; requesting leave is not a crime.” “The union is scheduled to meet with
‘UNITED FRONT’ RHETORIC: China’s TAO also plans to hold weekly, instead of biweekly, news conferences because it wants to control the cross-strait discourse, an expert said China’s plan to expand its single-entry visa-on-arrival service to Taiwanese would be of limited interest to Taiwanese and is a feeble attempt by Chinese administrators to demonstrate that they are doing something, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said the program aims to facilitate travel to China for Taiwanese compatriots, regardless of whether they are arriving via direct flights or are entering mainland China through Hong Kong, Macau or other countries, and they would be able to apply for a single-entry visa-on-arrival at all eligible entry points in China. The policy aims
RSS