Sounds Profitable

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Today in the business of podcasting:

• New data from the 2026 UK Advertising Landscape Study shows podcasting already reaches more 18-to-34 year olds in the UK than broadcast TV, challenging the assumption that podcasting is a niche channel for media planners targeting younger audiences.
• A case study from Primary Technology shows that publishing video episodes on Apple Podcasts roughly doubled plays and grew engaged listeners from 707 to 1,072, with no measurable cannibalization of the show's YouTube or audio-only audiences.
• Radio station groups once expanded into local CTV sales by leveraging their existing relationships and advertiser trust — a move that never happened for digital audio, despite targeting and measurement that now rival video in quality.
• The IAB projects U.S. digital video ad spending will reach $81.9 billion in 2026, an 11% year-over-year increase, with 54% of marketers shifting budget away from broadcast TV and 23% pulling from digital audio.
• A new white paper from Magellan AI and True Native Media argues that adding podcasting to a broader audio plan extends reach into audiences that streaming audio alone cannot capture, because the two formats serve fundamentally different listening contexts.

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:

• New Sounds Profitable research finds 86% of podcast listeners consume clips on at least one platform, raising questions about paid clipping strategies and whether flooding social feeds with short-form content helps or hurts long-term audience growth.
• Signal Hill Insights' Paul Riismandel examines what it actually means to have a "hit" podcast, finding that even The Joe Rogan Experience — the #1 show on reach-based charts — reached only 20% of the U.S. podcast audience in a given month.
• AdExchanger Senior Editor Alyssa Boyle analyzes YouTube's NewFronts presentation, where creators blurred the traditional line between talent pitches and publisher sales decks, as advertisers increasingly demand outcome-based commitments over broad reach.
• Consultant Steve Raizes explores how the weekly podcast production cycle traps creators on a content hamster wheel with no time for strategic growth, using Audiochuck's operational infrastructure as a model for sustainable scale.
• Tribeca Festival 2026 announces its most ambitious podcast lineup to date for its June run in New York City, featuring live events with Radiolab, The New Yorker Radio Hour, and Lemme Say This, with guests including Peter Dinklage, Adam Scott, and Laurie Anderson.

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.

Guest writer Ben Robins analyzes new data from The 2026 UK Advertising Landscape Study.

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A new study from Sounds Profitable and Sound Insights finds that podcasting reaches 60% of UK adults aged 18 to 34 monthly, outpacing broadcast TV's 57% reach in the same demographic. The 2026 UK Advertising Landscape Study, fielded with more than 5,000 UK adults and weighted to census, also finds that 35 to 54 year olds have the highest rate of "Prime" podcast usage of any age group, at 16%. The findings challenge the conventional UK media planning framework that treats podcasting as a supplementary buy, suggesting it is already the primary option for brands targeting audiences under 45.

• Written by Ben Robins
• Edited and narrated by Gavin Gaddis
• Text and audio edited by Tom Webster

Find the full article here on Sounds Profitable.

Today in the business of podcasting:

• Podigee has launched video podcast distribution across YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify, making the feature available on every plan with no waitlist.
• Acast reported its first-ever profitable Q1, with 20% net sales growth overall and 43% organic growth in North America.
• Megaphone is transitioning its campaign management to the Spotify Ad Server starting July 15, 2026, enabling new video ad formats while removing third-party VAST serving.
• Radio Ink contributor Steve Allen draws on Tom Webster's analysis of the SiriusXM/iHeart deal to argue that local radio's most underleveraged asset is the quality of its advertising creative.
• Nielsen data shows 77% of U.S. soccer fans use radio and podcasts for soccer content, with Millennials 41% more likely to consume World Cup coverage via podcasts than any other medium.

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.

Podcast Description

Today in the business of podcasting:

• Bloomberg's Ashley Carman surveys the growing landscape of AI-generated podcasts, examining how hosting platforms like RSS.com are setting monetization guardrails and how Spotify is rolling out a new badge to authenticate real music artists.
• John Spurlock's HLS Podcast Radar tracks video podcasts using the alternate enclosure tag, which several hosting platforms support but Apple Podcasts does not, as Buzzsprout announces that its video distribution to Apple Podcasts is out of beta and available to all users.
• New PQ Media data shows digital audio recorded the fastest consumer spending growth rate among all media categories in 2025, even as audio overall ranks last in total spending out of the $2.4 trillion consumers spent on media content and technology.
• A Scalable report examines the scale of creator-led media companies, including Beast Industries, which employs around 750 people and ranks among the less than 1% of U.S. companies with over 500 employees.

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:

• Tom Webster of Sounds Profitable audited iHeartMedia radio stations across three mid-size U.S. markets and found that less than 4% of weekday airtime in Pittsburgh features locally produced content, while Indianapolis registers effectively zero. The research challenges the premise that a SiriusXM acquisition would meaningfully reduce local programming that, by most measures, has already disappeared.
• New S&P Global Market Intelligence data shows podcast listening among U.S. online adults grew 10 percentage points in early 2026, reaching nearly 60% — a figure that aligns with Sounds Profitable's own Podcast Landscape 2025 research when video-only listeners are factored in.
• Nielsen has integrated Triton Digital's Podcast Metrics Demos+ data into its Nielsen Media Impact planning platform, giving ad buyers a more complete picture of the podcast audience alongside other media channels for more precise campaign planning.
• A new report from the Nigerian Podcast Index examines 329 shows across more than 20 hosting platforms and finds that while English-language content gives Nigerian podcasting global reach, the absence of local measurement infrastructure keeps the market largely invisible to international advertisers and investors.

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:

• Tom Webster audits iHeartMedia station clusters in Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, and Salt Lake City and finds that locally originating programming makes up a tiny fraction of weekday airtime, while local advertising load remains far higher, reframing what a SiriusXM acquisition would actually affect.
• Amplitude Media Partners' Reggie Risseeuw breaks down recent Megaphone ad server updates, including new Priority Pre-Book campaign tools and a mandatory geotargeting requirement taking effect July 14, 2026.
• WARC projects advertisers will spend over $10.5 billion during the four weeks of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, reversing a spending decline from the 2022 Qatar edition, with Spotify expecting the tournament to drive significant content consumption across its platform.
• Kirby Grines examines how the most valuable ad inventory is shifting away from exposure-based outcomes toward measurable results, with creators and rights holders building vertically integrated businesses to capture that value directly.

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:

• Libsyn has announced that video functionality is now available across all its hosting plans, with direct video distribution to Spotify — powered by the Spotify Distribution API — starting at $25 per month.
• Marketing firm JoneKiri is offering brand sponsorship opportunities for a live performance of Hanging with Doctor Z at Netflix Is a Joke Fest, with options ranging from organic product placement to full season four title sponsorship.
• Patreon has launched a redesigned Home feed featuring Quips, recommended creators, and collaboration posts, with the company reporting that creator interactions boost fan engagement more than five times above baseline.
• Bauer Media and Elevate Consultancy's Sound Check Europe 2026 study finds 86% of European advertisers now consider audio a core part of their media strategy, with 82% saying podcasts reach highly engaged audiences and 47% planning to increase podcast investment.
• A new study from iHeartMedia and Omnicom finds audio advertising drives measurable lift across brand metrics, with long-form host-read ads delivering up to twice the recall of shorter spots.

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 has integrated Triton Digital's Podcast Metrics Demos+ data into its Nielsen Media Impact planning platform, making it easier for advertisers to evaluate podcasts alongside other media channels with the same precision and comparability. Nielsen also launched Predictive Sales Lift, a new outcomes-based capability to help media buyers forecast sales lift for video ad campaigns on Nielsen One Ads.
• Spotify's Q1 2026 earnings show continued growth across the board, with Premium subscribers up 9% year over year to 293 million, Monthly Active Users up 12% to 761 million, and total revenue reaching €4.5 billion — a 14% constant currency increase over 2025.
• A new Precisify survey of 1,000 U.S. teens and Millennials finds YouTube is the one platform both generations share, reaching 83% of Gen Z respondents and 78% of Millennials, with nearly 45% of each group spending at least 30 minutes to an hour on the platform daily.
• The Nigerian Podcast Index 2025 Report surveys 329 shows to map Africa's largest English-language audio market, finding the ecosystem heavily reliant on Spotify for Creators at 58% of indexed shows, with a persistent lack of audience data identified as the industry's key challenge.

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:

• iHeartMedia and Sirius XM are in preliminary talks about a potential merger that would combine the largest radio station owner and the largest satellite radio service in the United States, creating a company with more than $12 billion in combined annual sales.
• S&P Global Market Intelligence data shows U.S. podcast listening grew 10 percentage points from Q1 2025 to Q1 2026, with nearly 60% of online adults now reporting they listen, a figure that aligns with Sounds Profitable's Podcast Landscape 2025 research when video-only listeners are factored in.
• Spotify has launched new fitness features for free and Premium subscribers, including curated workout playlists and access to more than 1,400 on-demand Peloton classes, alongside a new Claude AI integration that delivers personalized recommendations based on users' listening data.
• Spanish-language podcast platform iVoox has debuted what may be the first formal television ad campaign for a dedicated podcast app, developed by agency Drop&Vase and airing on Mediaset España channels in Spain.
• European audio platform Audion has raised $15 million to fund its expansion into the United States, with investment going toward go-to-market operations, partnerships, and product development.

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.