On September 19, 2023, Triton Digital, the audience measurement and ranking company for the audio industry, released a study on podcast trends in Canada in 2023. The study provides important insights into the current state of the market across Canada’s podcast media and networks.

Ranking of the Most Popular Podcasts

NBC’s *Dateline*, Wondery’s *Smartless*, and CBC/Radio-Canada’s *Front Burner** make up the top three in this ranking, which also features numerous other CBC/Radio-Canada productions further down the list, as well as two French-language podcasts hosted by Quebec media personalities on QUB, owned by Quebecor.

Quite logically—given the percentage of English- and French-speaking audiences in Canada—English-language podcasts dominate this ranking, but a few French-language ones still carve out a strong position near the top of the list, as is the case with *Sexe Oral* from Studio SF.

In the French-language-only ranking, culture takes center stage with *Plus on est de fous plus on lit!* and *Aujourd’hui l’histoire* (two rebroadcasts of Radio-Canada programs) in the top two spots.

It should be noted, however, that this ranking is based on media outlets, groups, or podcast networks that are members of Triton Digital, which is not the case for the vast majority of independent podcasts.

Download volume by network

In this part of the rankings, audio giant Sirius XM unsurprisingly leads the pack, followed closely by Wondery andCBC/Radio-Canada, which are neck and neck for second and third place.

It is therefore worth noting that in the audio sector—and particularly in podcasting—Canada remains very well positioned relative to content from abroad, firmly maintaining its place in listeners’ listening habits.

This is something to keep in mind when seeking visibility through partnerships or advertising on podcasts: Canadian productions are excellent channels and offer great exposure to the Canadian audience.

Listening and Downloading Habits

• As one might expect (a trend common to most countries), podcasts are primarily consumed on mobile devices, accounting for 92% of all listens.
  
• On average, listeners tune in to between 4 and 5 episodes per week.
  
• The most popular day of the week for listening is Wednesday.
  
• Peak listening hours are between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m.

Most Popular Genres

Among the podcasts tracked by Triton Digital, the True Crime genre leads in listenership with 18%, followed closely by News and Comedy (which is probably what’s known as “humor” in Quebec), not to mention Society and Culture in fourth place.

What this genre-based ranking shows us is that while podcasts are largely a medium for entertainment, they are also a medium for news and culture, since those two genres also rank at the top of the list.

It should be noted that in 2022, the “News” category held the top spot in this ranking by category.

Conclusion

Although the Triton Digital ranking represents only a portion of the content produced within Canada’s podcast ecosystem, the data provided by this study is a valuable source of information that helps fill in the bigger picture of the podcast market by examining specific content in Canada.

The role of consumption in the world of podcasts produced by Canadian media outlets or groups is interesting because it highlights a strong resistance among Canadians to consuming foreign productions.

Finally, despite the fact that the vast majority of consumers in the country are English-speaking, and that most independent productions are absent from this ranking, certain French-language productions—particularly those from Quebec—are carving out a strong position in Canada’s podcast consumption figures.

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* It should be noted that the name CBC/Radio-Canada covers both the English-language division and its French-language division, whose primary audience is in Quebec, followed by French speakers in other provinces. As for Radio-Canada (the French-language division), most of its audio productions are hosted on its own app or website and are not available on Spotify or Apple’s Podcasts app, which significantly limits their visibility in this ranking despite the exceptional quality of much of this content.