Sounds Profitable

This week in the business of podcasting:

• Tom Webster digs into The Podcast Landscape 2026 to see who would watch an AI-made season of a canceled show. Only 31% of Firefly fans say they would, compared with 45% of everyone who lost a favorite series.
• RAJAR’s Autumn 2026 MIDAS survey holds weekly U.K. podcast reach at 26%, and new Podcast Tracker research finds 34% of podcast consumers switch between audio and video in a given week.
• Triton Digital’s Spreaker commits to new safeguards against unauthorized podcast copies by year’s end, while a second Podnews investigation finds Meta’s Muse AI assistant quietly hosting podcasts.

To find links to these, and every article covered in this week’s episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download’s newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:

• Tom Webster digs into The Podcast Landscape 2026 to see who would watch an AI-made season of a canceled show. Only 31% of Firefly fans say they would, compared with 45% of everyone who lost a favorite series.
• Audio posted stronger year-over-year growth than any other channel at The Trade Desk in the third quarter, representing around 7% of the business, or roughly $52 million by Inside Audio Marketing’s estimate.
• Digiday reports brands like Anthropologie and Laura Geller Beauty are commissioning creators to make entire series instead of one-off sponsored posts, a shift The Streaming Wars also sees in television.

To find links to these, and every article covered in today’s episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download’s newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Register for Clips: Podcasting’s New Front Door, a free webinar from SoundStack, Audacy, and Sounds Profitable on Wednesday, November 18 at 2 p.m. ET.

This week Tom Webster returns to the AI data in The Podcast Landscape 2026 to reveal the canceled show Americans miss most. It’s Firefly, and its fans turn out to be some of the least willing to watch an AI-made new season, even though their genre and demographics say they should be an easy sell.

Tom gets into:

• Which canceled shows have fans most and least open to an AI-made revival, from The Walking Dead to Yellowstone
• How much of the spread age and genre explain, and where they stop explaining it
• Why Firefly fans run against their own profile
• What the result means for podcasters weighing AI, and why content research is the only way to know how your audience will react

Read the full issue here.

Today in the business of podcasting:

• Audio and video streaming advertising company Audion has launched in Japan with local partner Sekaiichi Inc., offering brands and agencies a single platform to plan, buy, and measure campaigns across YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music.
• Podnews editor James Cridland reports that Meta’s AI assistant Muse has podcast production and hosting built in, and investigates an AI-generated education podcast network whose founder appears not to exist.
• Analyst Adam Bowie breaks down RAJAR’s Autumn 2026 MIDAS survey of UK audio listening, along with new RAJAR research showing most video podcast consumers are listening as much as, or more than, they are watching.

To find links to these, and every article covered in today’s episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download’s newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:

• Nielsen’s Q3 2026 audio report, built on Edison Research’s Share of Ear data, finds podcasts take 21% of daily ad-supported audio time among U.S. adults. That share rises to 33% among listeners ages 18 to 34.
• Magellan AI’s Q3 2026 podcast advertising benchmarks show podcast ad spend up 18% year over year. Average ad load climbed to 8.86%, and grocery brands increased spending 42%.
• Triton Digital’s Spreaker commits to fighting unauthorized podcast copies after a Podnews investigation. New safeguards include emailing the original feed owner on import and an extra approval step before flagged duplicates can be monetized.
• Spotify and United Airlines now let passengers log into their own Spotify accounts on seatback screens. That brings saved podcasts, video episodes and personalized recommendations on board.

Submissions are open for the Winter update of The Podscape. Submit a new company or update an existing one through the official form by December 1. You can also register for the webinar Clips: Podcasting’s New Front Door, happening Wednesday, November 18 at 2 p.m. ET.

To find links to these, and every article covered in today’s episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download’s newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:

• Business Insider covers an Oxford Road survey finding 57% of marketers say measurement gaps are holding back podcast investments, with 40% planning to raise podcast and audio budgets in 2027, down from 59% this year.
• Scalable names podcasting an unexpected loser of the 2026 midterms, as mentions of Trump on conservative podcasts fall nearly 70% from their 2024 peak while mainstream TV and meme accounts win.
• Digiday reports that this year’s first holiday campaigns lean on celebrities like Seth Rogen, Colin Jost and Mariah Carey over creators, because Christmas is a mass-market moment.

To find links to these, and every article covered in today’s episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download’s newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

This week in the business of podcasting:

• Sounds Profitable’s Tom Webster finds the share of monthly podcast consumers who name just one genre grew from 12% to 16%, and explains why hosts and publishers should spend more time promoting other shows.
• Audion and YouGov’s new study finds YouTube is the top audio platform in France, and that two-thirds of listeners use video platforms to listen without watching the screen.
• Signal Hill Insights president Paul Riismandel shares three tips for planning a podcast brand lift study, starting about six weeks before the campaign launches.
• Australia’s PodPoll 26 finds YouTube now accounts for 55% of podcast consumption, even as most listeners still prefer audio, and advises treating video and audio as two distinct products.

To find links to these, and every article covered in this week’s episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download’s newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:

• Sounds Profitable’s Tom Webster finds that the share of monthly podcast consumers who name just one genre grew from 12% to 16%, and explains why hosts should spend a minute of every episode promoting another show.
• A Brazilian university lab launches an interactive map of more than 200 narrative podcasts, showing where each show’s story is set versus where it is produced.
• Bloomberg’s Ashley Carman reports that podcasters’ election night streams were far smaller than in 2024 and several big voices sat it out, a sign of a fractured media landscape.

To find links to these, and every article covered in today’s episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download’s newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:

• Signal Hill Insights’ Paul Riismandel shares three tips for preparing a podcast brand lift study, from planning six weeks ahead to gathering campaign details and defining objectives.
• Deadset Studios and Insightfully’s PodPoll 26 finds YouTube’s share of Australian podcast consumption has climbed to 55%, while 60% of regular consumers still prefer to listen rather than watch.
• Podscribe’s October 2026 rankings put Crime Junkie first in audio reach and The MeidasTouch Podcast first in monthly plays. Spotify leads both publisher rankings, and Quince takes the top advertiser spot.

To find links to these, and every article covered in today’s episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download’s newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

This week Tom Webster goes down a rabbit hole in The Podcast Landscape data to find out who consumes exactly one podcast genre, and why that group grew from 12% to 16% of monthly consumers in a year while the genre table barely moved. Tom gets into:

• Why Comedy, Political Talk, and Celebrity Interviews all slipped, and where those points went
• Who the one-genre consumer is: older than the stereotype, newer to podcasting, and likely to have found their one favorite show on YouTube or Facebook
• How video platforms and Spotify drove the growth, and why discovery routes that run through other podcasts are missing for these listeners
• What it means for hosts and publishers who hope to hand an audience a second show

Read the full issue here.