Podcasting has been given a leg up by the runaway success of Ricky Gervais and company, first for the Guardian Unlimited and more recently as a subscription service.
The study by market research agency BMRB suggests that over 10% of the adult population have already downloaded a podcast in the last six months and figures will continue to grow.
Among adult internet users, 17% have downloaded a podcast in the last six months, rising to 28% among 16- to 24-year-olds, and 24% are likely to download a podcast in the next six months.
Steve Cooke, BMRB marketing director, said: "The findings suggest that up to 7.9m adults could be downloading podcasts in the next six months, which represents a massive opportunity for advertisers and media owners alike."
The research also found that there was a definitely male bias with the emerging technology, with male internet users almost twice as likely (22%) as females (12%) to have downloaded a podcast.
In addition, the research confirmed that downloading podcasts was more prevalent among those who own an MP3 player, with 23% of all adults or 10.8m now owning such a device.
BMRB found that levels of MP3 player ownership were higher among men, with 28% having one and particularly high among the 16-24 age group where ownership jumped to 58%. Those owning MP3 players is likely to jump to more than 15m with another 4.3m set to buy an MP3 player in the next six months, representing market growth of 40%.
Apple and its iPod continue to dominate the market, representing 39% of all MP3 players equally split among men and women.
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .