Stats … stats … stats … downloads equals (= ) listeners to an ad embedded in a podcast?

It keeps getting talked about a great deal … "I had 1000 downloads of my last podcast, that means I had 1000 impressions.  Each 100 impressions is worth $100 dollars.  Advertisers … please send me a check for $1000 (10 x 100) for each podcast."

I don’t think that downloads per podcast can equal (=) impressions yet.  Because we don’t even know if the person listened.  What is going to be the percentage of downloaded but not listened to?

For example, two Fridays ago … I loaded about two previous weeks of podcasts that I wanted to listen to but hadn’t on my iRiver. That equaled about 17 hours of listening.  I am still going through that list.

So, I haven’t listened to anything new in almost two weeks.  I might just delete all but the most recent podcast for each podcaster feed just to catch up.  I have an over ambitious podcast subscription … I am a podcast junkie.

How many people are in the same boat?!?  Too much good content and not enough time.  Bummer for me, but bigger bummer for advertisers thinking they are getting X but are really getting Y?!?