Audio & Podcasting

How Companies Like iHeartMedia Capitalize on Growing Female Podcast Listenership

61% of paid streaming audio subscribers plan to increase their podcast consumption over the next 12 months, per Nielsen

Illustration of a woman listening to a podcast at the airport. — Listenership has grown due to flexible living and working routines.Studiostockart/Getty Images

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Female podcast listeners are growing, thanks to changing, pandemic-induced consumptions habits.

But diversifying audio listenership has always been part of the business plan for companies like iHeartMedia, which has seen an increase in new female listenership by 95% in the last two years and 85% for its overall audience.

“This is not by accident, this has been a deliberate plan of ours to create more and better content for female listeners to come into this medium faster,” iHeartMedia’s chief executive officer Conal Byrne told Adweek.