The proliferation of podcasts over the last few years has been massive, so much so that there are too many to listen to and, now that subscriptions have become a viable method of monetising the medium, too many to pay for.

There will be even more evolution in the space over the coming months and years, for sure. Given the speed of the new podcasts popping up, it may even be weeks.

Sport is one of the biggest players on the scene. News podcasts and areas of entertainment may have their own heaps of podcasts, but sports fans seem to love nothing better than knowledgeable people having light-hearted chat about sport.

That’s thoroughly unsurprising, of course. And in that sense, there’s been no real breakthrough here. Podcasts have been around for over a decade and pre-date social media on the digital media timeline – it’s easy to forget that Twitter itself is a by-product of a failed podcasting innovation. And ever since sport became a spectator event, chatting about it has been a favourite Monday morning pastime. Plenty of sports podcasts are just the logical extension of that.

The surprise is maybe how podcasts have made a comeback after bursting on to the scene a decade ago then suffering a lull, or at least failing to kick on. The problem was partly convenience: phones are now smart enough to deal with commuters with headphones who want to listen to podcasts and scroll through social media or keep up to date with news all at the same time. Their power has also allowed would-be podcasters and producers to actually start up – you don’t need expensive equipment to make one, just a phone to record on until a demanding audience makes better equipment necessary. Not everyone gets that far, but if you don’t invest much, the cost of failure is small.

Perhaps the reasons why sport and politics are two of the most popular topics of podcast conversations is because everyone can have an opinion, and in the age of social media, the right to share that opinion with the rest of the world has become inalienable: opinion is democratic, and anyone can share theirs.

YouTubers, social media influencers and football fan channels like Full-Time Devils and Arsenal Fan TV are stems from the same root. They have thrived on the recognition that new media has no real need for broadcast or highlights rights, nor do they need access to sportspeople or coaches. In fact, that’s part of their strength: they don’t need to be deferential to their celebrity guest, nor does the audience have to wonder about the subjective nature of the comments they’re hearing. In the end, if you’re going to have a conversation about sport in a public domain, why would you really want to hear from someone with a vested interest? Sure, the comments of football managers and ex-players who know what they’re talking about are often invaluable, but fans can get that from the big broadcasters already.

That doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting objectivity. Fans are still subjective, but at least you get the feeling that they’re saying what they believe. You may not an unbiased overview, but at least you’re getting truth. Especially if it’s considered analysis, and when that’s the case you know you’re getting an opinion that the speaker thinks is the best way forward, whether you agree with them or not.

But fan channels and YouTubers generally rely on video – and whilst video is almost the buzzword of the moment when it comes to content production, the fact that podcasts only rely on audio actually seems to give them the edge over other media.

Video is more demanding. It makes demands on two of your senses, making it more or less impossible to multitask. That’s a strength of the podcast, it requires only one sense, and so you can listen while doing pretty much anything else.

The way that on-demand entertainment services have changed people’s consumption habits means that the idea of listening to a podcast where and when you want has become a very normal thing: a phenomenon that sport has rarely experienced, when live sport has always been on at a certain time and if you miss it, you can’t just go out and buy the video.

The fact that there are suddenly so many sports podcasts out there isn’t surprising given the increase in popularity. But the fact that they’re suddenly so popular shouldn’t be a surprise either. And in a world where so many publishers are pivoting to video, good old watercooler sports discussion is beginning to look more and more relevant.