I don't get the auto-downloading. Why aren't podcsts simply streamed like spotify and Netflix/hulu? I actually think that's what might be continuing to hold podcasting back. I don't want to subscribe, I just want to listen.
Most of the other answers have been technical, along the lines of the storage space and bandwidth are minimal. Once you can download 20 times faster than you can listen, and you've got at least one show in the backlog of things to listen to, it doesn't matter. However, I'll give a content oriented response against streaming.
Selecting a stream at a random time midprogram would work very well for content that has no past and no future and no logic or information, like a morning zoo show or a news show or sports coverage. I guess that stuff is called infotainment now.
That wouldn't work very well at all for maybe 90% of current podcast content. If the content were aggressively dumbed down, it might be possible to join in the middle, but then no one would listen to the dumbed down stream given an option of non-dumbed down podcasts.
Maybe another way of phrasing it is its like the difference between tuning into a random webcam at a random comedy sports, vs watching this weeks sitcom episode. The former is likely to be pretty funny but no idea what you'll get, and the latter has at least has an 18 minute long story, if not a longer series based story.
Because where I live, the cell network is still not 100% reliable. At certain times or places, the stream would stop. Also, mobile data is not free, and volume-limited.
Personally, I do want to subscribe. I don't want Internet radio, I want podcasts.
I don't know about other phones but streaming is an option with the Windows Phone podcast app. I like to download mostly because I have a data cap and I set the app to download only on WIFI. If I find myself away from a hotspot and want to listen to a show, I can always just stream it.
I prefer to pre-download (automatically of course) podcasts as I listen while travelling, meaning sometimes the network drops out. Having said that however the podcast app I use (instacast) does indeed stream if I hit play on an episode that isn't already downloaded
That would burn through my data volume real quick … (some podcast clients do allow you to stream without subscribing or downloading, but I really don’t see the big difference).
