Podcasts are more popular in Czechia than ever. New shows keep arriving quickly, but only a small share stay the course. According to the České podcasty platform, 2,503 shows were active as of 1 April, less than a third of the total. Year on year, that is an increase of 9.9%.
If it feels like everyone around you either listens to a podcast or is recording one, you are not far from the truth. According to data from the České podcasty platform, nearly 100 new shows appear every month, and there are now more than 8,000 in total. Our data from the Evropa 2 survey also show that Czechs listen to podcasts a lot and regularly. At least once a week, or even daily, 51% of Czech adults already tune in.
Stories of murder, mystery and crime are booming. True crime podcasts have long been among the most popular genres, listened to by tens of thousands of people, and it is not unusual for a show like Opravdové zločiny to make the top ten most listened shows and even sell out O2 Arena. Crime also dominates the charts. At the top is Hlasy zločinu, and the top ten includes Krimi příběhy, Zloděje životů, Příběh, který se opravdu stal and Insta Crime podcast. By the way, did you know that crime now makes up 14% of all measured podcasts? That is more than any other genre.
But it is not just about crime stories. The way people consume podcasts, and the way creators make them, is changing too. More and more creators are following the global trend and choosing short series with a clear beginning and end. That lets them release five or ten episodes at once, which listeners can then listen to in one go.
It is great that we are starting to take inspiration from abroad in this format. Dropping (releasing several episodes at once) works brilliantly, and listeners love it. The podcast Plný kecky, for example, showed how much people appreciate smartly built content with a clear structure, which they can binge just like a Netflix series.
On the other hand, although many new shows are launched, most of them fall silent after a few episodes. Staying the course and creating regularly over the long term is no joke. Competition is fierce, and so far a podcast rarely becomes a profitable project.
But even here, things are starting to move. People around the podcast scene are working to let creators focus on content while also earning something from it. And companies are slowly beginning to understand that if they want to reach a younger audience that switched off TV long ago, podcasts are a bullseye.
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