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Tuesday, December 23, 2025
- Some of iHeart’s own video podcasts won’t, however, be in the iHeartRadio app in video, after the company signed an exclusivity deal with Netflix earlier this month.
Meta’s Threads social network is to launch podcast previews - a way to upload clips to the platform - in a bid to attract more creators. It launched podcast links from user profiles last month, though this still hasn’t rolled out to all users.
- We’ve been here before, haven’t we: Meta’s Facebook announced podcast integration in April 2021; launched to invite-only podcasters in June 2021 but it only ever worked in the US; and they quickly lost interest, announcing its closure in May 2022. Look! A squirrel!
Eric Nuzum predicts “the HBO of podcasting finally emerges” in 2026, which he describes as “someone refusing to settle for the version of podcasting we have now and insisting on the version we have not tried yet.”
Toni and Ryan have been confirmed as speakers at Radiodays Europe in Riga, Latvia, next March. They’ll also be recording their podcast on stage.
It’s time to finally retire the word 'podcast’, says The Verge’s Andru Marino in a paid article, arguing that the word is “becoming meaningless”.
In Germany, the Fest & Flauschig podcast celebrated its tenth anniversary in an event attended by more than 12,000 people, and has raised more than €1.1 million for charities.
Sports Business Journal posts about the growth of women’s sports podcasts.
Congratulations to SBT News, a new TV channel in Brazil. It’s just launched a show called, er, “Podnews”. This website criticises them for their tiny, cheap-looking interview studio. We agree - the real Podnews® would never be made in a small cheap-looking office that looks like someone’s spare room.
✔There's More To Read: HERE
Monday, December 22, 2025
Bloomberg’s Ashley Carman reports a new number from YouTube’s Steve McLendon, in a paid article: People watched 700 million hours of YouTube Podcasts on TV in October. It’s claimed that this is “nearly double the amount of time a year ago”, and it’s “the new late-night TV”. (In YouTube, a podcast is called a podcast if it’s marked as such by the creator).
- It’s a big number, so let’s put it in context: in February this year, YouTube claimed over 1 billion hours of YouTube content is streamed on TVs every day (a figure from December 2024). 700 million hours a month means podcasts represent, at most, 2.3% of all TV streaming on YouTube. (Podcasts are 20% of all ad-funded audio).
- In the first half of 2025, Squid Game season 2 was globally watched for 840 million hours on Netflix - that’s 140 million hours a month, or “a fifth of all YouTube TV streaming of podcasting”.
- As for being the new late-night TV? Kimmel, Colbert, Fallon and The Daily Show in total attracted an average of 6.7 million viewers on broadcast TV in 2024, with 621 new episodes. That works out as 173 million hours each month (we’re assuming that viewers stay for half an hour). But YouTube’s 700 million is global at all hours of the day and night, and late night’s 173 million is just the US.
Acast has acquired German content producer Wake Word Studios. The company will be rebranded Acast Creative Studios. The company makes fifty shows with more than two million monthly listens; and a media planning platform, Podius, which will continue to be run independently.
iHeartMedia has extended its relationship with Charlamagne The God, the host of Power 105's breakfast show in New York, and the popular The Breakfast Club podcast. (Just as well - the show’s part of the Netflix/iHeart deal).
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Buzzsprout podcasters will get access to “Playback 2025” in early January - the company’s review of the year. The company suggests you grab the iOS app or Android app so you’re ready.
The entire contents of Spotify (as of July this year) have been downloaded and analysed by Anna’s Archive, an anonymous group. (Archive link). Our link to their blog post (which doesn’t contain links to any audio) contains overall metadata analysis of the songs on the service; and also suggests that the group has an incomplete database of five million podcasts, and 54 million episodes, from Spotify. (The metadata, only, is available for download via torrent currently.)
✔There's More to Read: HERE
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
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
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