Techcrunch has some guestimates from eMarketeer that reckon the number of active podcast consumers in America was 6.5 million last year (who yielded advertising worth $165 million) and will grow to 25 milion in 2012. Now the bold use of future numbers (licked finger in air) is why I’ve always struggled with a business plan (what are your predictions of tunrover/profit in 3 years and 5 years – how the b***ocks should I know!?).

I’m interested that last year 18.5 million Americans listened to a podcast and a more importantly one third of those remained active listeners. One of the reasons for this is the ease with which podcast can be found and consumed. I’ve already speculated on this and know there is a real appetite for the right niche content, so based on these numbers perhaps I should refine the planning. But I wont be paying eMarketeer $695 for the full report. Now if they bothered to present it in audio or video….