The freedom to choose premium content without ads is hardly a new phenomenon—cable networks such as HBO have been cutting advertisers out of the loop for years. Now, with paid music streaming services doing to music what Netflix did to movies and TV, there are even fewer places to advertise to affluent consumers who want their content on-demand.

Findings from The Canadian Podcast Listener 2019 show that podcasts can help advertisers unlock this attractive audience. On-demand consumers have a marked affinity with podcasts, with weekly users of digital on-demand media indexing well above traditional media for being monthly podcast listeners.

The implication—and the opportunity—is clear. Podcasts, like paid audio/video streaming services, put the consumers in full control, freeing them to choose the content they find most engaging. Of all those options, only podcasts open the door for advertisers to reach the consumer when they are so deeply engaged.

The Canadian Podcast Listener Study 2019 is co-published by Signal Hill Insights and Ulster Media, with support from The Podcast Exchange (TPX). Results are based on online surveys using a market representative sample of more than 4,500 Canadian adults from Maru Voice Canada. A free summary report of top-line findings from this year’s study is available here.