“From 2016 to today we have invested 20 million euros in the development of content in Italy”. And what Juan Baixeras, Country Manager Italy & Spain of Audible is keen to underline, speaking to Sole 24 Ore. The investment trend will also be constant for the company of the Amazon galaxy which is one of the major players in the production and distribution of quality audio entertainment (audio books, podcasts and audio series).
And this is also because, confirms Francesco Bono, director of the Content Program of Italy and Spain, audio books – and especially podcasts – have “now firmly entered the listening habits of Italians, accompanying them everywhere and at any time of the day. We are also very happy to see how podcasts and audio books are widely disseminated among the very young audience and not only, and how they have now become an essential support tool for students and people to get information and deepen their passions “.
What concerns podcasts and audiobooks is a growing trend in Italy, for six years now. The data from the latest NielsenIQ research for Audible show + 7% in podcast consumption recorded so far in 2022. 15.4 million Italians have listened to a podcast at least once in 2022, compared to 14.5 in the year previous one. An increase of almost 1 million listeners, which after the exploit recorded in 2020, confirms that more and more Italians are intrigued and passionate about this format of audio entertainment.
Millennials and the very young are confirmed as the largest podcast users in Italy. 77% of respondents in the 18-24 age group say they listen to them, as do 67% of those between 25 and 34 years old. The latter is also the age group with the highest share of “heavy users”, those who listen to podcasts every day.
Audible has had and does have a weight in this dynamic, with its history that began 25 years ago in the US and passed through the acquisition, in 2008, by Amazon. Today it has 10 localized services around the world – Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Spain, the UK and the US – serving 180 countries. Starting in 2016 in Italy. “We are talking about a service that offers half a million books by subscription globally, with more than 12 thousand Italian titles and 265 original podcasts in Italy”, Juan Baixeras points out.