MANILA -- The Philippine podcast industry is eyeing more advertisers, the president of an industry group said Friday.

"One of the biggest challenges now in the industry is to really convince advertisers to say, ‘Hey, podcast advertising is an interesting way to actually reach the millennials and the Gen Z’s,'" said Alan Fontanilla, chief executive officer of The Pod Network Entertainment.

"Because they’re always on the go, they’re elusive, so through podcast advertising, because they choose to listen to the show...it’s one way to be more intimate, in terms of sharing your brand messages," he said.

Fontanilla said millennials are the ones driving the listenership of podcasts.

"And usually what happens is, now that the world has opened up, they listen to it going to the office, coming back from the office, even while working, they’re in the background," he explained.

Fontanilla said podcasting exploded in the Philippines at the height of the COVID pandemic in 2020.

"We had as much as, if I were to look at the data, around 30 million listeners," he said.

He noted, however, that podcast listenership had dropped to about 10 to 15 million as people started going out.

"We’ve seen a dip in terms of listenership but what I see it as is that we already now have a core audience," he said. "And with how technology, with how our internet, despite our daily rants about connectivity--it has improved vastly in the past 2-3 years."

"Because of that, accessibility to streaming services is easier now for Filipinos," he said.

--ANC., 22 December 2023