Ten years since the BBC made Radio 4’s In Our Time available as a podcast it has released a list of the most popular downloads.
The Friday Night Comedy podcast tops the list with more than 70 million downloads, whilst The Archers was the most downloaded this August. Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo’s Film podcast was downloaded 1.6 million times in August, with Desert Island Discs coming in third.
Other popular podcasts include Test Match Special, More or Less and The Infinite Monkey Cage. There were 24 million UK downloads of BBC podcasts in August.
The popularity of podcasts has grown in recent years as more user-friendly apps for discovering and downloading are installed on smartphones. In 2012 Apple released the Podcasts app for iOS devices whilst Android users can choose from apps like DoggCatcher. Lists of top podcasts and episodes on apps like Apple’s iTunes frequently include Football Weekly from The Guardian and Frank Skinner on Absolute Radio.
Podcast listeners in the UK have also discovered independently produced downloads, such as Answer Me This!, a comedy podcast which is about to celebrate its 300th episode. New weekly podcast Serial, from the producers of This American Life and hosted by Sarah Koenig, is currently the top podcast on the iTunes Store.