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Coronavirus: Working from home? There’s a podcast for that…

A quarter of Brits choose to listen to podcasts whilst working from home, with comedy the No.1 category.

That’s according to research conducted by ABC Finance, which revealed not only a rising number of Brits listening to podcasts whilst working at home, but also what they are choosing to listen to.ย 

Key Findings:

  • 12% of the UKโ€™s population (6.5 million) listen to a podcast every week.
  • Since the beginning of March, ย the number of Google searches for โ€˜podcasts for workโ€™ has increased by 90% โ€“ suggesting that the number of people listening to podcasts whilst working from home is on the rise.
  • Almost 2/3 (61%) of regular podcast listeners spend more time listening to podcasts than they do watching TV โ€“ suggesting that they not only listen to podcasts for productivity, but to unwind too.ย 
  • This is only confirmed by the fact that 30% of the podcasts in Spotifyโ€™s โ€˜Top 50 Podcast Chartsโ€™ are comedy โ€“ which also suggests that Brits are wanting some relief from the current news.ย 
  • However, the current second most popular podcast category is โ€˜educationalโ€™ โ€“ accounting for 20% of the top 50 podcasts on Spotify. One of these podcasts is titled, โ€˜The Coronavirus Newscastโ€™ and is number 28 on the list.

As part of their research, ABC Finance analysed Spotifyโ€™s โ€˜Top 50 Podcast Chartsโ€™ on March 20th to reveal which categories are currently the most popular.

The Current Most Popular Podcast Categories*
PositionCategoryNo. of PodcastsPercentage
1Comedy1530%
2Educational1020%
3Culture918%
4Thriller612%
5Sport510%
6Mindfulness510%

Top 10 Podcasts

1 Peter Crouch Podcast – Sport
2 Sh**gged, Married, Annoyed – Comedy
3 Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster – Comedy
4 The Receipts Podcast – Comedy
5 My Favourite Murder – Thriller
6 Last Podcast On The Left – Thriller
7 No Such Thing As A Fish – Educational
8 The Misfits Project – Culture
9 My Dad Wrote a Porno – Comedy
10 Today in Focus – Educational

In addition, ABC Finance have an interactive guide which highlights the different demographics of podcast listeners > ย https://abcfinance.co.uk/podcast-industry-report/index.html#6