Daily subscriber updates average between 1,500 and 1,600. That’s up from about 800 a day, which is where daily updates stood a month after the Pentagon Channel began the podcasts.

In January, there were 37,000 subscriber updates, according to channel statistics. Podcast use has been growing steadily: There were 10,565 updates just during the second week of February, reports the channel’s marketing coordinator, Michael Winneker.

The Pentagon Channel estimates that about 51 percent of its subscribers, the majority, are in North America.

But it’s tough to get a realistic fix on where many of the its podcasters are pulling data down, Winneker says, because .mil domains often do not identify their geographic origin, and Defense Information Systems Agency regulations preclude the channel from doing a reverse lookup to find out that information. As a result, the next largest group of users, 35 percent, are from unspecified locations.

Users can download the feed at www.pentagonchannel.mil, which also offers simple how-to instructions for would-be podcasters.

DOD also has registered its podcasts with Apple iTunes and ipodder.org to raise awareness of its programs, most of which are created by the department itself or are live feeds from briefings around Washington and other news hot spots.

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