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Friday, December 19, 2025
Senior executives from the biggest companies in podcasting give their highlights of 2025, and their predictions for the year to come, in a special episode of the Podnews Weekly Review, published today.
- Ben Cave from Apple Podcasts underscores that podcasts are open by design; and teases us that the platform will “continue to innovate with new features”. Buzzsprout’s Jordan Blair highlights that we’ll see an “absolute brick wall of AI fatigue”; Roman Wasenmüller from Spotify focuses on what he calls the authenticity and loyalty that has shaped podcasting; Shea Simpson from Amazon says that video will continue to evolve; Ellie from Pocket Casts wants to see more podcasters adopting new Podcasting 2.0 features; and slightly worryingly, Megan Lazovick from Edison Research threatens that the Infinite Dial presentation next year might be a musical. We hope she’s joking. Tell us she’s joking. The full set of guests are available wherever you get your podcasts.
Netflix has signed a deal with Barstool Sports for three shows. The streamer will get exclusive access to the video from Pardon My Take, The Ryen Russillo Podcast, and Spittin’ Chiclets - the audio show continues everywhere.As with all these deals, this effectively removes access to video versions of these shows to everywhere outside the US; Netflix’s podcasts will initially be only available within the US, and the company only vaguely promises “additional markets to follow”. Only 27% of Netflix subscribers are in the US.
Magellan AI’s November 2025 rankings have been released. BetterHelp was the top podcast spender, spending $5.9mn. Washable Sofas was #2, increasing their spend to $5.8mn. And both Aura Frames and The Coca-Cola Company appear high on the top movers & shakers list.
Podfest will be the biggest it’s ever been next month, the event has announced. Podnews newsletter readers get a discount on seleted passes.
Uproxx has cancelled its podcast Indiecast. The show was five years old. “It is part of an overall downsizing of my role with the company”, Steven Hyden has posted. The company has, however, offered access to the name and RSS feed.
LiveOne has renewed its audio advertising partnership with DAX US for a further twelve months.
Triton Digital released rankers for the US and for Canada. The US shows the iHeart Audience Network as #1; CBC/Radio-Canada gets #1 slot in Canada.
✔There's More To Read: HERE
Why would anyone knowingly buy ads on a platform that works up to 25% worse? New research today from Oxford Road suggests that, in spite of the hype around YouTube, ads on YouTube shows are less effective than on audio-only podcasts. The data is based on more than a thousand campaigns - and shows that video comes at a heavy cost to advertisers, who might be better buying audio instead.
Initial Group has acquired podcast and YouTube producer Silver Tribe Media. No terms were given; the company will be called Initial Digital. Silver Tribe’s clients include Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Studios, and Colin Cowherd’s The Volume, among others.
Now, short-form video is coming to books. Audible is adding swipeable vertical videos in its app, including trailers, author interviews, and behind-the-scenes clips, for select publishers. Here’s an example of what you might see.
Looking for new shows to try over the holidays? New Podcasts has plenty, but Greg Wasserman has summarised all the podcast recommendations he’s made this year. So have Tink, which has produced the company’s Audio Delicacies feature (complete with a playlist on Spotify so they’re all in one place).
The Media Leader asks why are brands ignoring female-hosted podcasts?
Programming note: Real podcasters never stop, and nor do we; we publish every day over the holiday period, yes, even that one. Stories etc to editor@podnews.net
Some of the best performing podcasts for advertisers are tried and trusted shows that have been established for more than five years. That’s according to Oxford Road’s ORBIT data, which draws on $1.6bn+ in ad campaigns. Top performing shows include The Tim Ferris Show, Young and Profiting with Hala Taha, and Crime Junkie - all of whom have been podcasting since before March 2020, and out-perform newer shows.
The Washington Post knew that its AI-produced podcasts were going to be poor after internal tests but launched them anyway, reports Futurism. A piece in LAist quotes Gabriel Soto from Edison Research - 1 in 5 podcast consumers say they’ve listened to an AI-narrated podcast; but many prefer the human connection, he says.
The new features in Apple Podcasts makes the app “finally good again”, says HowToGeek. The automated chapter feature is “really slick”, according to none other than Podcasting 2.0's Dave Jones, who says that he’s now using Apple Podcasts for his work-related podcasts. (You get the new features by updating your device to v26.2 - chapters and timed links are also visible on Mac using 26.2 as well).
Apple Podcasts added a new support document helping users who have trouble signing-in to Apple Podcasts Connect. The first step is to give them valid payment information (which won’t be used until you make a purchase).
Podcastle has launched Async Intelligence, a tool that watches your video content and suggests edits to make for better engagement. It’s been trained with 500,000 hours of content, and more than a million sets of engagement signals.
2025's best true crime podcasts have been announced by the true crime review podcast Crime Writers On. The podcast has reviewed more than a thousand true-crime and crime-adjacent podcasts. We publish the full list today.
iOS podcast app Castro has blocked Inception Point AI podcasts from its app search results. In a blog post, Castro’s Dustin Bluck says that Inception Point AI “seems to be keying on popular searches in order to flood search results and deceive users.”
Apple released iOS v26.2 at the end of last week. In Apple Podcasts, it rolls out automated chapters for every podcast, as well as “timed links”, which is particularly helpful for guests, allowing links to their podcasts to appear when they’re mentioned in the audio. We’ve updated our FAQ. The v26.2 update also includes more than 25 different security fixes, so we’d suggest you update as soon as you’re able to.
Thursday, December 18, 2025
Why would anyone knowingly buy ads on a platform that works up to 25% worse? New research today from Oxford Road suggests that, in spite of the hype around YouTube, ads on YouTube shows are less effective than on audio-only podcasts. The data is based on more than a thousand campaigns - and shows that video comes at a heavy cost to advertisers, who might be better buying audio instead.
- The data is also covered in the Wall Street Journal today.
Initial Group has acquired podcast and YouTube producer Silver Tribe Media. No terms were given; the company will be called Initial Digital. Silver Tribe’s clients include Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Studios, and Colin Cowherd’s The Volume, among others.
Now, short-form video is coming to books. Audible is adding swipeable vertical videos in its app, including trailers, author interviews, and behind-the-scenes clips, for select publishers. Here’s an example of what you might see.
Looking for new shows to try over the holidays? New Podcasts has plenty, but Greg Wasserman has summarised all the podcast recommendations he’s made this year. So have Tink, which has produced the company’s Audio Delicacies feature (complete with a playlist on Spotify so they’re all in one place).
The Media Leader asks why are brands ignoring female-hosted podcasts?
Programming note: Real podcasters never stop, and nor do we; we publish every day over the holiday period, yes, even that one. Stories etc to editor@podnews.net
✔There's More Read: HERE
Wednesday, December 17, 2025
- Some of the shows that are not part of the deal include On Purpose with Jay Shetty with 16mn views over the past 30 days, but which isn’t headed to Netflix. Nor is Club Shay Shay (20mn), Drink Champs (2.2mn), or Las Culturistas (3mn). One of iHeart’s biggest shows is also obviously missing: Stuff You Should Know doesn’t currently make video versions of its podcast. (There are more shows to be announced though.)
- How big is Netflix? In 2023, Podnews built a tool using Netflix’s own data to help compare the size of Netflix shows to podcasts; our own Podnews Weekly Review is bigger than 1-in-5 of all the shows on Netflix, despite only getting 26,500 downloads a month.
Netflix and iHeartMedia have announced an exclusive video partnership for top iHeartPodcasts. iHeart continues to retain audio-only rights and distribution; but the 14 announced shows will be removed from YouTube.
Good news from the UK: after a lobbying campaign by AudioUK, the UK Government has granted a seat on the Creative Industries Council to podcasting and audio, representing a significant recognition of the creative, cultural and economic value of podcasting and audio. It will allow the industry to engage directly with policymakers.
The BBC’s future funding model from 2028 is the subject of a green paper and public consultation from the UK government. (In the UK, “green papers” propose policy ideas for discussion and consultation). Radiocentre, the UK commercial radio trade body, has suggested that ad funding should be ruled-out; earlier this year, after considerable industry pressure, the BBC abandoned plans to place ads in its podcasts in the UK.
- The BBC currently earns most of its funding from a $233 “licence fee” directly from UK households - which raises $5bn per year. This week, US President Donald Trump announced plans to sue the BBC for $10bn for a misleading edit of a speech in a TV program which did not air in the US.
The National Headliner Awards has just opened for entries, including those for podcasts (see the Digital Multimedia category). The awards have been going since 1935.
Spotify highlighted all the money they spent to promote Wrapped
✔There's More to Read: HERE
Tuesday, December 16, 2025
The Washington Post knew that its AI-produced podcasts were going to be poor after internal tests but launched them anyway, reports Futurism. A piece in LAist quotes Gabriel Soto from Edison Research - 1 in 5 podcast consumers say they’ve listened to an AI-narrated podcast; but many prefer the human connection, he says.
The new features in Apple Podcasts makes the app “finally good again”, says HowToGeek. The automated chapter feature is “really slick”, according to none other than Podcasting 2.0's Dave Jones, who says that he’s now using Apple Podcasts for his work-related podcasts. (You get the new features by updating your device to v26.2 - chapters and timed links are also visible on Mac using 26.2 as well).
Apple Podcasts added a new support document helping users who have trouble signing-in to Apple Podcasts Connect. The first step is to give them valid payment information (which won’t be used until you make a purchase).
Podcastle has launched Async Intelligence, a tool that watches your video content and suggests edits to make for better engagement. It’s been trained with 500,000 hours of content, and more than a million sets of engagement signals.
✔There's More to Read: HERE
Monday, December 15, 2025
iOS podcast app Castro has blocked Inception Point AI podcasts from its app search results. In a blog post, Castro’s Dustin Bluck says that Inception Point AI “seems to be keying on popular searches in order to flood search results and deceive users.”
- Is the accusation fair? A search in Apple Podcasts for Charlie Kirk brings up four shows from Inception Point AI in the results - Charlie Kirk Biography Flash, Charlie Kirk, Charlie Kirk Death and Charlie Kirk Manhunt. The company’s CEO, Jeanine Wright - who is a former legal attorney - has been clear about the company’s SEO policy, saying in an interview for the Podnews Weekly Review podcast: “When people typed Charlie Kirk into Apple and Spotify, we were three of the top five shows - even beating out the Daily Mail.” Only one of those shows makes any mention of AI in the audio; another claims it has “personal interviews” and “a team of expert researchers and journalists”.
- As of checking today, Inception Point AI’s biography channel contains 733 shows; the vast majority of which are, according to the company, not checked by humans before publishing.
Apple released iOS v26.2 at the end of last week. In Apple Podcasts, it rolls out automated chapters for every podcast, as well as “timed links”, which is particularly helpful for guests, allowing links to their podcasts to appear when they’re mentioned in the audio. We’ve updated our FAQ. The v26.2 update also includes more than 25 different security fixes, so we’d suggest you update as soon as you’re able to.
- To update your iPhone or iPad to v26.2, open the Settings app, choose “General” then “Software Update”, and pull down the screen to check for the latest. (Do it from a fast wifi connection!)
✔There's More To Read: HERE
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