February 23, 2026

Ad-skipping in podcasts is ‘surprisingly low’

6 minutes

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Podcast ad skipping "isn’t as bad as I thought”, says Bumper’s Dan Misener, suggesting that - for Bumper’s clients - for most shows, 90% of their audience listen right through the ad breaks. He concludes “The longer your ad break, the greater your ad avoidance, and the lower your ad retention”.

The CEO of Netflix, Ted Sarandos, was on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning. The company has donated £1mn to the National Film and Television School. In a wide-ranging interview covering the future of television, he highlighted how much of a competitor YouTube is, criticised the BBC for “giving free programming” to them, and criticised YouTube for not investing in creativity. He also spoke about podcasts: in the absence of a listen-again facility on the BBC’s international website, we’ve clipped those comments here should you want a listen. “I think podcasts are just an extension of chat shows”, Sarandos said, adding “I think that there’s a million podcasts now around the world, literally”. (The most conservative number is literally three times higher).

Ozen FM, an audio monetization network, has expanded to Brazil with the appointment of a Commercial Director for the country, Priscila Falcone.

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