There’s a huge market demand for podcasts, but kids who aren’t listening to podcasts are slow to adopt them because they haven’t yet heard one they enjoy listening to to, according to a new report from New Jersey-based Edison Research.

Published on July 27, Edison Research’s Kids Podcast Listener Report shows that while 63% of six- to 12-year-olds are aware of podcasts and 46% have listened to one, only 29% did so in the last month. 

According to the report, approximately 20% of parents say their kids don’t listen to podcasts because they haven’t found any they enjoy listening to, while 18% say there aren’t enough podcasts available for their kids on the platforms. 

According to parents, most six- to 12-year-olds want podcasts based on their favorite TV shows (79%) and movies (77%). Around 75% of parents say their kids are interested in audio that teaches them something new in a fun way, and 69% believe they would listen to podcasts that have some video component. Another big group of respondents (63%) say podcasts hosted by other kids would go over well.

Getting even more granular about what kids want to listen to, Edison found that the biggest draws for this audience are podcasts about games (51%), music (43%), comedy (39%), short stories (39%), adventure (36%), bedtime stories (36%) and sports (28%).

The report also revealed that 80% of kids were introduced to podcasts by their parents, while 24% started listening to titles they saw on social media and YouTube. School friends talking about podcasts also prompted 23% of kids to start listening.

Edison’s study is based on 1,272 online surveys conducted in June 2023 with US adults who have at least one child between the ages of six and 12. In total, the report also contains 245 responses from US kids in that demo.

Photo by Emily Wade on Unsplash

This story originally incorrectly stated that Kids Listen conducted the research, instead of Edison. Kidscreen regrets this error.