That Peter Crouch Podcast was the most listened to podcast for all adults, as well as for under-35s on BBC Sounds in the first quarter of 2020.
The weekly audience reached a record 3.5 million in March during the first weeks of the lockdown, as listeners turned to BBC Sounds for live and on-demand radio, podcasts and music.
New data for Q1, 2020 (January – March) shows the number of plays for all audio increased to 275 million, up 25 million from the previous quarter. There was a record 123 million plays of on-demand radio and podcasts, up 15 million on the final three months of last year.
There are millions of plays of our radio stations on BBC Sounds, with 55 percent of overall plays being for live content and 66 percent of all listening hours – demonstrating the scale of people listening live online and through the app.
Jonathan Wall, Controller of BBC Sounds, says: “We’ve seen record numbers of people using BBC Sounds this quarter, and the new data demonstrates again that our radio stations are at the heart of Sounds, whilst people are increasingly listening on demand too.
“Peter Crouch’s brilliant podcast tops the latest chart, which is no surprise as we know how much listeners enjoy the laughs and fun of being part of Peter, Chris and Tom’s sports chat. It’s also great to see such a range of other podcasts, like The Gemma Collins Podcast, on-demand radio and music feature as audio people enjoyed in the first part of this year too.
“In the weeks after the lockdown began there was increased live and on-demand listening on Sounds so I’m really pleased that since then we’ve also been able to bring listeners new podcasts that entertain and provide them the company of some of the UK’s most popular hosts such as Louis Theroux, Dotty, James Acaster, Scarlett Moffatt and the Match Of The Day presenters.”
There were 230 million downloads across the world of the BBC’s on-demand audio in the first quarter 2020, the same as the previous quarter. The Global News Podcast (BBC World Service), In Our Time (Radio 4) and The Documentary (BBC World Service) proving again the most popular three titles.