Audio-only listeners continue to make up the majority of Canadian podcast audiences, according to The 2025 Canadian Podcast Listener survey, conducted by Signal Hill Insights in partnership with Ulster Media.
Published this week, the new insights from the study follow last fall’s data preview that revealed Canadian podcast consumption has reached an all-time high, with monthly podcast audiences growing 19% year-over-year, now comprising 46% of the population, A18+. Based on a survey of more than 4,600 Canadian adults, the 2025 survey indicates a 16% increase in weekly listening.
While the growth of podcast consumption on YouTube is undeniable, Matt Hird, Signal Hill Insights Vice President of Research, wrote in a blog post this week that while YouTube is used most often by 40% of podcast listeners in Canada, those listeners aren’t using the platform exclusively.
“Only 24% of monthly users in Canada say they only consume their podcasts in video form, with the remaining 76% spending at least some of their time with podcasts in an audio-only environment,” wrote Hird.
He maintains that aggregating the behaviour of all podcast users only tells part of the story, with 2025 the first year that the full study covers listening versus watching by individual podcast.
“Half of the Top 10 podcasts on CPL’s whole-market Canadian Podcast Chart are having no problem maintaining their positions even though the majority of their audiences say they ‘listen only,’” wrote Hird.
This year’s survey also found that podcast cross-promotion is declining in influence, with 16% of monthly consumers indicating they found a show on another podcast, compared to 25% who found one on their podcast app.
The study also maintains that podcast listeners are more resistant to ad avoidance, with just 18% of monthly consumers saying they avoid podcast ads “all the time” – the lowest rate among ad-supported platforms included in the survey. By comparison, 25% of monthly podcast consumers say they avoid TV ads “all the time,” with 33% avoiding online video ads.
