February 27, 2026

Podcasts overtake spoken-word radio

5 minutes

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For the first time in history, podcasts are now bigger than spoken-word radio, according to new data from Edison Research at SSRS. This time ten years ago, podcasting was more than seven times smaller than AM/FM radio, which was a dominant force in spoken-word listening. But, over the last decade in the US, the share of time spent using AM/FM radio to listen to spoken-word audio has almost halved - shifting to time spent with podcasts.

There will be more data about podcasting next month, with the publication of The Infinite Dial® 2026, with support from SiriusXM Media. The gold standard of research on podcast consumption, the new data will be unveiled by Megan Lazovick, VP of Edison Research at SSRS, in a free webinar on Mar 12. She’ll be joined by our Editor, James Cridland.

A new report on ad spend from Guideline says that US digital audio ad revenue will increase +9.3% this year, to $2.9bn. Podcasts are expected to hit 35% of digital audio ad spend (suggesting podcast ad spend of just over $1bn). Figures are worked out differently to the IAB, which suggested podcasting was $2.4bn in 2024.

Guideline also reported that growth in digital audio ad spend is at the expense of TV budgets - $87mn was shifted out of TV into digital audio advertising in 2025 - and radio declined by $29.3mn. Digital audio advertising was still less than 5% of the total media mix in 2025.

Piling on to radio’s diminishing place in audio, in the UK, radio charity association The Radio Academy is now The Audio Academy, "as it deepens its focus across the rapidly expanding audio landscape”. Nick Pitts was made Chair.

> > > Read more of today’s podcast industry news stories on the Podnews website: and get our free daily newsletter.

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