The latest ABC podcast numbers are in for June, with a total of 5,553,903 downloads. This is an increase of 4% from last year’s June numbers. There were 31,663,197 downloads in the first six months of 2012, an increase of 9% from the same period last year.

Of the most popular podcasts, Radio National received 1,942,945 downloads in June, the News podcast received 1,045,680, Local received 883,876, Triple J received 751,833, Science received 378,202, and Radio Australia received 341,566.

In an email to staff that contained the results, Director of ABC Radio Kate Dundas welcomed the download numbers:

“ABC Audience Research has compiled the podcast numbers for June and the news is good. We see steady growth every month and solid growth year on year.” 

Comparing the first six months of 2012 with 2011 there were some significant increases in downloads. Notably the News podcast received 6,038,533 downloads in the first half of 2012, up from 3,489,412 in the previous first half of 2011. Local Radio increased from 4,038,438 downloads in the first half of 2011, to 5,017,241 in 2011. News Radio also had a large increase, jumping from 335,123 to 540,798 in the first half of 2012.

Radio National received 11,370,759 downloads in the first half of 2012, down slightly from 11,768,516 the previous year. ABC Classic FM decreased from 350,600 downloads to 326,536 in the first half of this year. Radio Australia also decreased from 1,969,904 downloads to 1,516,215.

Triple J and Science podcasts more or less remained steady.