A snap election in the United Kingdom has spiked interest in politics-themed podcasts, according to Acast.
The company, based in Sweden, backs most of the major podcast publishers in Europe. They reported a 53 percent jump in UK-based listens for political topic podcasts since the election was announced in late May. The election, in a twist the Americans in the audience will find ironic, is July 4.
No comparable data is available for the effect on podcasting in recent French elections, although Statista data shows that news is the top topic in French podcasting, with society in culture in tenth and politics 14th most popular among topics.
In the US, podcasts on politics and government account for 10 percent of the top-ranked podcasts, but the 'politics' topic genre is split by many ranking services. News is the top category, while tags including 'government,' 'society' and others split politics-themed shows. Hark is tracking and cataloging pertinent shows at their Campaign Trail 2024 page.
We will monitor the political world to see what the run-up to the November US presidential election means for the podcasting world.
