The podcast in Catalan adds 20 new episodes every day

BarcelonaIf someone wanted to listen to all the podcasts available in Catalan in one go, they would need five years, two months, fourteen minutes, and twenty-two seconds to get through the 50,791 episodes from 832 different offerings. This is without pausing to sleep, eat, or attend to other physiological needs: just audio straight to the veins. These are data from the first Catalan Podcast Yearbook, published this Wednesday by Espai Sonor with data from the last decade (2016-2025), coinciding with the international day dedicated to this form of audio content. According to the figures, 20 new episodes are uploaded to the web every day, which accounts for the consolidation of this subsector after an expansive decade.

In fact, the absolute record was reached in 2024, when 479 different podcasts contributed 8,906 episodes. And that February 26th, the milestone for episodes in a single day was surpassed, with 60. Last year, on the other hand, a slight decrease of 12% was observed, which analysts interpret as a stabilization of production. These guest voices also agree in pointing out that the challenges for the Catalan podcast are quality, community building, economic sustainability, and the emergence of AI.

The yearbook also looks at the profile of the typical Catalan podcast. Obviously, there are all kinds, but the dominant trend is a proposal in the social or cultural sphere, with 23 episodes per year, which premieres in winter and is uploaded mostly on Wednesdays or Thursdays to Spotify and a second platform. Regarding duration, the average is 53 minutes and 35 seconds, although the trend has been uneven throughout the decade. From 54 minutes and 28 seconds in 2016, it reached an hour and one minute two years later. But then it went down until marking the lowest figure of the entire series in 2021, with 48 minutes and 26 seconds. Since then, the episodes have gained length and last year the average duration was established at 51 minutes and 41 seconds.

The multiplication of podcasts has also caused series to gradually shrink. At the beginning of the study, each active series had an average of 37 episodes. Six years later, the figure had dropped to less than half, with 17 episodes.

By platforms, Spotify is dominant, with 342 titles, but followed closely by the 340 published on ivoox. At a greater distance are the 231 Apple podcasts, the 164 on YouTube, or the 14 on Twitch. And they can also be segmented by territories: Catalonia has 247, in the Valencian Community there are 40, in the Balearic Islands 6, in Andorra 2, and in Northern Catalonia, 1.

The big question, as in so many other areas of the Catalan communication space, is the sustainability of this lush undergrowth, yet one formed by small, almost individual initiatives. “There is still too much noise, both in the world of podcasting and also in the multiplicity of advertising media,” says Núria de José, CEO of La Xarxa, one of the experts consulted by the Yearbook. “Surely we also need to find audience evaluation mechanisms recognized by all agents.” Magda Gregori, director of La Mira, believes that the key is the diversification of income and “that its financing does not rely on just one source. If advertising can be combined with institutional aid, sponsorships, the holding of acts or events, and even subscriptions, this variety can make the project more sustainable and less dependent.”

One of the hot topics is the impact of artificial intelligence on this sector. “With AI, it wouldn't be strange to see a future where I wake up in the morning and have a hyper-personalized podcast, curated just for me, according to my tastes and interests,” explains David Poblador, who, however, defends the presence and theatricality of the format, since it “turns the podcast into an experience and not just a consumption content.” Clara Narvión, co-director of Radio Primavera Sound, shares the idea that AI can be a useful tool in production tasks but sees the danger of losing genuineness: “For me, the future of the podcast must involve one's own voice, the niche, authenticity, and I don't believe that AI can replace any of these points,” she concludes.