Podcasts and politics

Even before Spotify’s Joe Rogan endorsed Donald Trump, the eventual winner of the November 2024 US presidential race, media analysts dubbed the contest the ‘first podcast election’. Politically themed podcasts saw a 50% jump in listenership last year according to Acast media. Although, podcasts are relatively new, the radio talk show format has been a staple of the media industry for decades. A shift in distribution technology is also not new. In 2006, ‘shock jock’ radio host Howard Stern moved to Sirius Satellite radio in a USD 100 million, five-year deal. Stern continues to host his show on Sirius. Similarly, in 2020, Spotify signed a USD 200 million multi-year deal with Joe Rogan, and renewed the contract last year at a reported USD 250 million. Notably, where publicly available radio broadcasts in the US are subject to regulations including a code of decency, satellite and internet streams are not. According to Edison Research, in 2024 47% of Americans aged 12 and above listened to a podcast at least once a month, up from 42% in 2023 and 15% a decade ago.

Source: Edison Research, December 2024