Sounds Profitable

This week in the business of podcasting:

• New Sounds Profitable data shows the smart TV has overtaken the smart speaker as a top device for podcast listening, with Tom Webster arguing audiences increasingly treat podcasts as foreground viewing rather than background audio.
• The IAB raised its 2026 U.S. ad market forecast to 12.3 percent, with podcast advertising expected to grow 8.7 percent and outpace other digital audio formats.
• Scalable examines the wave of executive departures at creator-founded companies like Dude Perfect, Audiochuck, and Good Good Golf, and what those exits reveal about scaling creator-led businesses.
• True Native Media's Sabrina Nelson makes the case that podcasters do not need to be on every platform to grow, and should focus their time where it actually moves the needle.

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:

• New Podcast Landscape 2026 data shows smart TVs now drive 12% of primary podcast listening, up from 8% in 2024, while smart speakers have flatlined at 1%. Tom Webster argues audiences increasingly treat podcasts as foreground content on the shared living-room screen rather than voice-summoned background audio.
• The IAB raised its 2026 U.S. ad growth forecast to 12.3%, up from the 9.5% it projected in January, after a stronger-than-expected first half. Podcast ad spending is climbing 8.7%, outpacing other digital audio and ranking ahead of paid search, digital display, and gaming.
• YouTube's public "view" count now registers the moment playback starts, letting mouseovers and autoplay inflate the number, while the stricter "engaged views" metric is visible only to uploaders. ADOPTER Media's Glenn Rubenstein urges buyers to make engaged views the standard on 2027 insertion orders so brands don't overpay for the same attention.

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:

• Red Seat Ventures has integrated Barometer's AI-powered brand suitability and contextual targeting engine into its Speakeasy platform, bringing episode-level ad targeting to a portfolio of more than 40 creators and cutting the over-blocking that leaves safe inventory unsold.
• Scalable examines a wave of executive departures at creator-founded companies like Dude Perfect, Audiochuck, and Good Good Golf, tracing them to founder-centric business models and the friction of bringing in professional managers to scale.
• True Native Media's Sabrina Nelson argues podcasters do not need to publish on every platform to grow, making the case for a focused distribution strategy that spends limited time where it actually moves the needle.

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 to the bottom of the device table in the brand-new The Podcast Landscape 2026 data and finds a story that has been quietly eroding for years. The smart speaker, once pitched as podcasting's cleanest shot at owning a default, has flatlined at one percent. The device actually climbing is the biggest screen in the house. Smart TV as the most-used way to listen jumped from 8 percent in 2024 to 12 percent in 2026, and folded together with second-most-used it now reaches 25 percent of podcast consumers, while the phone slipped.

Ahead of his keynote at Podcast Movement in New York, Tom gets into what that shift really means:

• why podcast listening in the home is consolidating onto the television rather than spreading across every device in it
• what a screen changes for advertisers when a show can be seen by a whole room instead of heard through one pair of earbuds
• why the car makes the same point from the other direction, and the one context the industry has spent the least time thinking about
• what the move from background to foreground says about what the audience has decided a podcast actually is

A preview of the questions Tom will take to the stage on the 17th.

Read the full issue here.

Today in the business of podcasting:

• Bloomberg reports that BetterHelp is podcasting's biggest advertiser of all time, with an estimated $242 million spent since 2023 and ads running on more than 1,000 shows at once, per Magellan AI.
• MS NOW is expanding its Crooked Media partnership, adding Jon Lovett's Lovett or Leave It to its Saturday night lineup starting September 12 through the 2026 midterms.
• Digiday reports the creator economy still has no standard way to price talent, with roughly half of marketers mispricing fees and many admitting they overpay.
• NPR launches a Senior Podcast Challenge inviting Americans 65 and older to submit original audio stories, with entries due November 30.

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 runs through the stars and keynotes of Podcast Movement 2026 in New York, including his Podcast Landscape 2026 study of more than 5,400 consumers and a surprising finding that Apple has slipped out of the top three podcast platforms.
• YouTube's redefinition of a view roughly doubled reported view counts overnight, and Oxford Road's Dan Granger and Bumper's Dan Misener argue the resulting confusion makes the case for trustworthy cross-platform measurement standards.
• Australia's internet advertising hit a record $19.8 billion in FY26 with podcasting up 10.1%, even as IAB Australia's Future of Measurement review warns the industry still needs shared data standards to measure cross-channel impact.

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 week.

Today in the business of podcasting:

• Podcast Movement 2026 heads to New York City September 17 and 18 at Terminal 5, where anyone registered by September 4 gets their podcast or company artwork on a Times Square display, and Tom Webster previews the keynote lineup and his Podcast Landscape 2026 research.
• Hernan Lopez breaks down a new inflection point in streaming distribution, weighing direct-to-consumer, wholesale deals through Amazon Channels, Roku, and YouTube, and ad-tier monetization, projecting Amazon Channels could reach roughly $10 billion a year.
• A federal judge ruled Google will not be forced to break up its ad tech business despite earlier monopoly findings, a decision set to reshape pricing, inventory access, and competition across programmatic advertising.

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:

• IAB Australia's Future of Measurement review finds the biggest constraint on advertising is fragmented data, not a shortage of measurement methods, and it calls for a shared campaign-data taxonomy modeled on IAB US's Campaign Data Standards 1.0.
• YouTube and Variety are launching the inaugural Variety x YouTube Creator Festival at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, premiering a Mark Vins documentary and two episodes of Ziwe's You'd Be an Iconic Guest before both become YouTube exclusives.
• Netflix is doubling down on podcasts, ordering new shows from Katt Williams, Harlan Coben, and Stephanie Soo, renewing its entire slate of originals, and adding acquired Spotify video podcasts including The Bill Simmons Podcast and The Rewatchables.

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 delivers his final Podcast Movement programming rundown, along with a deadline you don't want to sleep on. Register by end of day Friday, September 4 and the art for your show or your company logo goes up on a screen in the middle of Times Square. Fewer than 200 tickets remain at $199 for both days.

Tom also previews the four keynotes headed to the New York stages:

• Thursday at 11:30, Tom releases The Podcast Landscape 2026 live from the stage, the fourth year of the Signal Hill Insights study and the largest publicly available study of podcasting in America at 5,400 consumers weighted to the census. For the first time since podcasting began, Apple is no longer among the top three platforms people name, and Tom reveals what replaced it.
• SiriusXM Media brings MrBallen, John Allen, for a fireside on turning a devoted true-crime fanbase into a lasting multi-platform brand.
• Arielle Nissenblatt and Lauren Passell tackle the question the industry never settles in WTF is a Podcast in 2026?, built from answers gathered from attendees all week.
• Steve McLendon, Head of Product for YouTube Podcasts, closes out the keynotes with what YouTube is building next for podcasters.

Plus the details on the IAB Podcast Upfront after party at Terminal 5, featuring a live taping of Dana Gould's Hangin' with Dr. Z in full Planet of the Apes makeup.

Read the full issue and register for Podcast Movement here.

Today in the business of podcasting:

• Oxford Road's Dan Granger argues that YouTube's decision to redefine how it counts views, a change Bumper's Dan Misener found inflates play counts by nearly double, is the jolt that proves podcasting needs cross-platform measurement standards it can actually trust.
• Former Adelicious leaders Andy Goldsmith and Craig Eastwood team with industry veteran Mike Wooller to launch Everywhere, a new media company built to unify creator commercial partnerships as audiences increasingly follow creators across platforms rather than staying on one.
• Earmax Media's Andy Maxwell makes the case that podcast advertisers chasing cheap reach and low CPMs are missing what makes the medium work, arguing that a tightly focused community, brand affinity, and strong creative deliver far more value than raw scale.

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.