TL;DR: Most podcasting research comes from the US, Europe, and Australia – and it doesn’t reflect the realities of South African creators. I’m launching a PhD study into the political economy of indie podcasting in South Africa, focusing on SAPG members, to give our industry the data it needs.
This research will be ethics-approved, confidential, and built on voluntary participation. It will provide insights into audience habits, monetisation, and challenges specific to our context, helping us advocate for funding, fair policy, and training. Participation will involve surveys, possible interviews, and a shared commitment to shaping the future of local podcasting.
If you Google “podcasting trends,” you’ll be buried under statistics from North America, Western Europe, and Australia. Charts, graphs, and case studies paint a picture of a booming industry with millions in advertising revenue, huge audiences, and sophisticated monetisation models.
Those numbers might be accurate – for those regions.
Here in South Africa, the playing field is very different. Data costs influence when and how people listen. Internet access is uneven. Podcast discovery often happens through word of mouth rather than platform algorithms. Advertising spend is smaller and skewed towards established media brands. And while podcasting is growing, it’s doing so in a context shaped by our own economic, cultural, and linguistic realities.
The problem is that almost all our decisions – from how we market shows to how we pitch sponsors – rely on foreign research. It’s like trying to plan a road trip using a map of another country. You might get the general idea, but you’ll miss the actual roads, detours, and shortcuts that matter here.
Without our own research, we are:
Guessing at audience behaviour.
Over-relying on business models that may not fit our reality.
Missing opportunities to influence policymakers, advertisers, and funders.
South Africa is part of the Global South – a term that includes countries with shared histories of colonialism, economic inequality, and developmental challenges. In podcasting terms, it also means we share some realities with creators in other African countries, parts of Asia, and Latin America:
Limited access to industry-level funding.
Lower per-capita advertising revenue.
The need to produce content across multiple languages and cultures.
Different audience motivations for listening (e.g., education, language preservation, community building).
These factors change the way podcasting works here. If we keep relying on Global North data, we risk importing solutions that don’t address our needs and ignoring opportunities that are uniquely ours.
Research that starts here – with our podcasters, our audiences, and our challenges – gives us a baseline that makes sense for our environment.
This PhD project is designed to collect and analyse the kind of information that has never been gathered at scale for our indie podcasting community. The goal is to produce:
Actionable insights – real, local data about who listens, how they listen, and what kinds of content connect with them.
Evidence for advocacy – numbers and case studies we can present to advertisers, funders, and government to show the value of podcasting.
Guidance for professional growth – identifying where creators need support most, whether it’s audience growth, monetisation strategies, or technical skills.
Recognition of the indie sector – highlighting the diversity and impact of small-scale, independent creators who are often invisible in mainstream media reports.
Imagine being able to pitch to a sponsor with concrete data about your audience – not a guess, not a borrowed US statistic, but actual numbers from the South African market. That’s the kind of power this research aims to provide.
The South African Podcasters Guild (SAPG) is a growing, diverse network of independent creators. Its members range from one-person passion projects recorded in a bedroom to small teams producing sophisticated series. They represent a cross-section of genres, languages, and production styles.
By focusing on SAPG members as a starting point, the research can:
Provide a detailed snapshot of organised indie podcasting in South Africa.
Cover a wide range of experiences, from beginners to seasoned professionals.
Set a benchmark for future national data collection beyond the Guild.
This isn’t about excluding non-members – it’s about starting with a community that already has an established network and commitment to the industry.
Participation will be entirely voluntary and carried out under strict ethical guidelines approved by the University of Pretoria. That means:
Confidentiality – no identifying information will be shared without explicit permission.
Transparency – participants will know exactly what is being asked and how the data will be used.
Here’s the expected process:
Online survey – about 15–20 minutes to complete, covering your podcast’s content, audience, income streams (if any), challenges, and goals.
Optional follow-up interview – 30–45 minutes, giving you the chance to share more detail about your experience.
Early access to findings – participants will get a summary of the results before public release.
There’s no cost to participate, and the time commitment is relatively small compared to the potential impact of the research.
The value of this research depends entirely on the quality and honesty of the data. If only a handful of people respond, or if answers are incomplete, the final picture will be blurred. But if a large number of podcasters contribute, we can build a clear, credible overview of the industry.
Being open in sharing your experience – the wins, the frustrations, the experiments that didn’t work – helps in three ways:
It strengthens advocacy – policymakers and funders take data seriously.
It benefits peers – your challenges might be the same ones other creators are facing, and seeing patterns helps us address them.
It builds a legacy – this research will form a historical record of where we are now, something future podcasters can look back on.
One podcaster’s input might feel small, but in aggregate it shapes the story of South African podcasting for years to come.
This PhD project is a starting point, not the final word. Once we have a solid baseline, we can:
Explore audience research in more depth.
Analyse monetisation patterns over time.
Compare our market with other Global South countries.
Track the impact of policy changes, industry initiatives, and technology shifts.
Ideally, this will spark an ongoing culture of research in our podcasting community. Rather than relying on outside reports, we’ll generate our own, year after year, to track growth and respond to changes.
In time, we could even collaborate with researchers in Nigeria, Kenya, Brazil, India, and other Global South markets to compare strategies and share best practices.
If you’re a member of the SAPG – or an indie podcaster working in South Africa – you can play a direct role in shaping the future of our industry.
Here’s what I’m asking:
Take part in the survey when it goes live.
Be open and honest in your responses.
Consider joining an interview if invited.
Share the survey link with other podcasters in your network.
The more voices we include, the more accurate and useful the final picture will be.
This is our chance to stop guessing and start knowing. With the right data, we can advocate for funding, push for fair policy, and make better business decisions. We can tell our own story – one that reflects the reality of podcasting in South Africa, not just the way it looks from across the ocean.
Your voice is your brand. Your podcast should sound like it.
We help creators, coaches, and businesses make shows that stand out – for the right reasons.
Book a free consultation and let’s build something powerful.
Complex ideas don’t belong in monologues; they belong in moments. This final article reveals how to turn abstractions into characters, tension, and emotion so your podcast teaches without ever sounding like a manual.
A single voice can feel more real than reality itself. This article explores audio’s power to immerse and persuade—from War of the Worlds to modern podcasts—and why that intimacy demands ethical storytelling.
Audio connects through lived moments, not lecture notes. This piece shows how storytelling turns abstract ideas into felt experience, using Alistair Cooke’s Letters from America as proof that the human ear learns best through story.
This is the final part of our three-part series on AI and podcasting. To follow the journey from the beginning, start with Part 1 about AI factories and then read Part 2 on practical tools before diving into this closing piece on the human edge.
This is Part 2 of our three-part series on AI and podcasting.
This is Part 1 of our three-part series on AI and podcasting. In Part 2 we explore the tools podcasters can actually use to their advantage, and in Part 3 we explain why the human voice matters more than ever.
