James Cridland's PodNews For Friday, Dec 5

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Friday, December 5, 2025

Apple Podcasts named The Rest is History the 2025 Show of the Year - the first time the accolade has gone to a show that isn’t from the United States. Apple Podcasts has interviewed the hosts, Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook.


Exclusive: PRX and AudioUK have announced a 2026 Podcast Creator Summit in London, UK, inviting podcasters of all experience levels to share and gain insights spanning the art and business of making podcasts and audio. The free summit is organised in partnership with Apple Podcasts, and will be held at Battersea Power Station in February. The press release contains details of tickets: you can sign up now.


Amazon Music released its 2025 Delivered recap earlier in the week. The company released data of the top podcasts for 2025, in a number of countries - we’ve a list of some of those countries here. In Japan, three of the top five were from TBS Radio.

Triton Digital’s Omny Studio announced support for video podcasting. It’ll let you produce an RSS feed with video, and automatically produce an audio RSS feed from it if you need that; and dynamically-inserted ads will come soon, we’re told. This is in addition to using Spotify and YouTube’s own systems. (The system encodes all video at 720p, and doesn’t yet support alternate enclosures).


It’s time to make video open, says podcast host and app Fountain. The post details the “alternate enclosure”, which allows podcasters to use one feed (not two) for their shows - with benefits for SEO and promotion, but also to keep podcasting open, even with video.

✔There's More To Read:  HERE

Thursday, December 4, 2025

Spotify Wrapped was released, including Spotify Wrapped for Creators, which gives podcasters a year’s data for your own show. We learn 76 fans have the Podnews Daily as their #1 show (and Taylor Swift is your favourite artist). For shows hosted elsewhere, the data is only for consumption on Spotify.

• Nina Yiamsamantha, Spotify’s Head of Creator Marketing, Podcasts, told Podnews: “Wrapped for Creators this year is bigger than ever and dedicated to creators and their fans. It’s a look at which episodes sparked the most engagement, where new fans discovered your show, what kept them coming back, and more. We hope you enjoy exploring the experience as much as we enjoyed building it!”

Spotify Wrapped included the Spotify top podcasts for 2025 in various countries. Notably, in the UK, Steven Bartlett has overtaken Joe Rogan for the first time; and Goalhanger’s “Rest Is” has four shows in the top ten.


Within the consumer Spotify Wrapped, “Your Top Podcasts” appears if you’ve consumed podcasts during the year, says a post about methodology. Podcasts in this list are ranked by total minutes listened. Interestingly, if you listen to a podcast at 2x, Spotify only counts the actual minutes you spend listening, not of the original content.

Spotify published The Year in Podcasting, a look back at 2025’s highlights for creators and culture in podcasting, from Spotify’s lens.

• While “video” doesn’t appear once in Spotify’s look back at the culture of podcasting, it sure appeared in the figures. More than 80% of the US top 50 podcasts features a video episode. That was “up from 2024”, the company says. The top 20 video podcasts grew their consumption by 24%+ since December 2024.

✔There's More To Read:  HERE

Wednesday, Dec 3, 2025

YouTube released its annual end of year trending lists. The Global Culture & Trends Report 2025 contains top ten lists of creators, topics and songs across a number countries and regions; and - for the US only - a list of top podcasts, calculated by total watch time. The Joe Rogan Experience is #1; Kill Tony is at #2; and Good Mythical Morning - a video-only show - is at #3. The full list is at the bottom of their press release.

• The company is also rolling out YouTube Recap, a personalised look back across your activity across all of YouTube for the first time. It also links to YouTube Music’s Recap too, which is currently rolling out.

AI tools for podcasting offer an exciting opportunity - but also a legal minefield. Writing for Podnews, Gordon P Firemark reminds us what to look for when we use AI. (As one example - if you make a logo using AI, you can’t copyright it.)


With a hundred days until the event, Podcasthon has revealed that it already has more than 1,000 registrations from more than 40 different countries. The event in March asks you to dedicate one of your episodes to a charity of your choice, and has support from companies like Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Headliner is running a survey on whether you use captions on YouTube. Up for grabs is a free year’s Headliner Pro account for one user.

✔There's More To Read;  HERE

Tuesday, Dec 2, 2025

First look: Acast has announced a dramatically enhanced YouTube program in the UK, allowing advertisers to access some of the largest YouTube podcasts. As part of the deal, Acast also signed an inventory partnership with Little Dot Studios, which has eleven billion monthly views on the platform. Little Dot Studios will work with Acast on its new YouTube offering, allowing Acast UK creators to unlock significant new revenue streams, and to grow their video podcasts.


First look: Details of The Podcast Show 2026, in London, have been announced. The show will include additional stages and more networking opportunities, including what the event calls “the ultimate networking party”. Day passes are now on sale. Jason Carter, the Festival Director, tells Podnews: “Next May promises to be our biggest yet. We are delighted to hear from so many in the industry that the event has now become one of the most important shows on the global podcasting calendar.”

• Reflecting the high number of international visitors, the event will also include an international stage, curated by Podimo.
• Podnews readers get a discount on all passes.

Edison Research released the top 25 podcasts in the UK for Q3/25. Wondery’s RedHanded makes it to the top 25 for the first time. Goalhanger have four shows in the list; the BBC have five. Acast and Megaphone both host six shows.

PodcastOne has partnered with Dr Phil’s Envoy Media to launch a new multi-platform podcast network. Podcast content will broadcast on national TV networks, with Envoy podcast content and talent from PodcastOne.


Matt Medeiros has produced an AI-powered analysis tool for podcasts - and let it loose on the Podnews Weekly Review. This YouTube video goes through his report; the full report is here, and the code used is here. Amazing.

✔There's More to Read:  HERE

Monday, Dec 1, 2025

Congratulations to Start Here, the daily news podcast from ABC News, which published its 2,000th episode this morning. The podcast was launched in March 2018, and is hosted by Brad Mielke, who’ll be a guest on the Podnews Weekly Review this week.


YouTube’s algorithm appears to have changed in September: it now heavily favours recency, according to Mario Joos on LinkedIn - who shares a way you can isolate the data for yourself. (You could argue that this algorithm change is a benefit to podcasting - where ‘recency’ is the algorithm in many apps.)


Hindenburg has launched an advent calendar with “a daily treat for storytellers”.

Spotify wants you to update your app. It’s almost like they’ve got something to unwrap shortly.


The Pod Radar has launched. A little like ProductHunt but for podcasts, a new ranker is produced from listener votes for indie podcast episodes every week. It’s free to submit a show.


AudienceLift has launched an API for its growth engine, allowing integration with podcast hosting platforms, networks and brand studios.


The 2025 Creator Economy Ad Spend & Strategy Report was released by the IAB. Ad Results Media has given its take - that the creator economy doesn’t replace (marketing through) audio: it amplifies it.

✔There's More to Read:  HERE