ESPN Podcasting Has a Record Year

 

From audioblogging in the 1980s to the first digital audio podcast of 2004, the powerhouse audio medium of podcasting has grown exponentially since its humble beginnings. As of 2020, there are 850,000 active podcasts and over 30 million episodes, with more than half of all US consumers above the age of 12 that listen to podcasts. This is staggering growth, considering there were just 500,000 active podcasts in February 2018—and ESPN is betting big on this progression continuing.

This past October, ESPN podcasts were downloaded more than 69.5 million times—a record month for the company. MarketScale Radio hosts Daniel Litwin and Tyler Kern dive headfirst into the niche shows and top talent that are driving ESPN’s listener numbers, the challenges of production during lockdown, the importance of content creation, the competition they face, and more.

  • ESPN podcasts broke records, downloading more than 96.5 million times in October.
  • The company leaned into personality-driven podcasts and flexible remote workflows to churn out content.
  • ESPN faces heavy competition in the space from Spotify, iHeartMedia, The Ringer, and Barstool.

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Image

Latest

creative career
Crafted Journey How To: Building a Creative Career Across Scripts, Stages, and Sound
June 8, 2026

Creative careers rarely move in a straight line, especially for writers working across stage, screen, audio, books, and independent film. Sustaining that kind of life often means finding opportunities wherever they appear, building a strong network, staying open to different formats, and saying yes to collaborations that can lead somewhere unexpected. The stakes are…

Read More
EMR
EMR Strategy, Consulting, and Career Pivots with MedSys Co-Founder Mark Embry
June 8, 2026

Electronic medical records (EMRs) have moved from a back-office upgrade to a frontline determinant of care quality, clinician burnout, and hospital economics. With U.S. hospitals often spending tens to hundreds of millions—sometimes exceeding $100 million—on EMR implementations, the stakes have never been higher for getting both the technology and the human adoption right. As…

Read More
radiology
Growing Without Compromise: How Vision Radiology Balances Scale, AI, and Clinical Quality
June 4, 2026

Radiology sits at the center of a modern healthcare squeeze: imaging volumes are climbing, hospitals need faster reads, and there simply are not enough radiologists to meet demand the old way. At the same time, remote work and AI are reshaping what a clinical practice can look like. The challenge is no longer whether…

Read More
Radar
Physical Retail’s Next Infrastructure Layer: Item-Level Intelligence with Radar
June 4, 2026

Physical retail is under pressure to become as measurable and responsive as e-commerce. While retailers have spent years optimizing digital channels with real-time data, store teams have often had to make decisions with incomplete inventory visibility and delayed operational signals. That gap matters because stores still account for 80% of U.S. retail sales, making…

Read More