Ad-skipping in podcasts is ‘surprisingly low’

• Podcast ad skipping "isn’t as bad as I thought”, says Bumper’s Dan Misener, suggesting that - for Bumper’s clients - for most shows, 90% of their audience listen right through the ad breaks. He concludes “The longer your ad break, the greater your ad avoidance, and the lower your ad retention”.

  • Meanwhile, in The Tech Stuff today, below, we discover that Apple Podcasts’s new HLS streaming specification might include the ability to disable skipping through ads, if that part of the specification is implemented.

• The CEO of Netflix, Ted Sarandos, was on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning. The company has donated £1mn to the National Film and Television School. In a wide-ranging interview covering the future of television, he highlighted how much of a competitor YouTube is, criticised the BBC for “giving free programming” to them, and criticised YouTube for not investing in creativity. He also spoke about podcasts: in the absence of a listen-again facility on the BBC’s international website, we’ve clipped those comments here should you want a listen. “I think podcasts are just an extension of chat shows”, Sarandos said, adding “I think that there’s a million podcasts now around the world, literally”. (The most conservative number is literally three times higher).

• Ozen FM, an audio monetization network, has expanded to Brazil with the appointment of a Commercial Director for the country, Priscila Falcone.

• The ParaPods Network and Daylight have signed three new shows for their portfolio. The shows will gain cross-promotional opportunities, monetization and audience development.

• The Australian Podcast Ranker “fails to measure video podcasts”, says Prithi Dey, a Spotify executive, pointing out in reported comments to Mumbrella what she called “the chart’s failure to capture video streams”. The Australian Podcast Ranker uses logfile analysis to measure podcasts, and would happily include consumption on Spotify if the company supplied the data. ”It’s really important to have a third-party measurement platform that provides greater transparency and clarity in the ecosystem,” Dey said, but neglected to give any transparency as to the reason why Spotify isn’t supplying this data to the third-party measurement ecosystem in the first place. It hasn’t stopped Mumbrella writing up a big piece about it though.

• Events:

  • In Ireland, the HearSay Audio Arts Festival has been announced, May 7-10, after what the Festival Director calls "a break for renewal”. Calls are open for contributions.
  • In Japan, Podcast Expo 2026 has been launched with a first set of speakers; it calls itself Japan’s largest podcast event. It’s expecting more than 5,000 visitors.

• Further reading:

  • Barrett Media speaks with a number of people about Apple Podcast’s plans for video.
  • "With Apple’s move, for the first time every major distribution platform now treats video as core to podcasting.” - Steven Goldstein says, however, that some things remain the same.
  • John McDermott suggests that at least a third of all podcasts won’t be able to put video into Apple Podcasts, adding: “I do find myself continuing to struggle to make sense of this industry’s desire to pivot to video.”

The Tech Stuff - with RSS.com

• How will Apple Podcasts video work? We’ve taken a long look at the HLS streams that Apple Podcasts appear to be asking for. Particularly, we learn that advertisers can mark their ads to be non-skippable - in the specification, at least. From all that we can currently see, it does appear that there’s nothing proprietary in how the HLS streams work, so they could well work in other apps and on other devices, if added to the alternateEnclosure tag.

• Podcast host RSS .com has announced support for the alternateEnclosure tag, speaking of which. It allows you to attach alternate media files to the same episode - the company lets you use externally hosted URLs for now. They’re of particular use for bandwidth-poor countries like some parts of Africa, where mobile data is very expensive. And they can also be used for video - Foc a Terra is one show with an HLS video as an alternate.

• Free podcast analytics service OP3 has published its bills for February. Podnews is a supporter to help pay for the service, which monitors lots of shows (here are over 1,300).

Podcast News - with Airwave

With Airwave: What do jailbreaking fighter jets, lost Amazon vans, and swapping your phone’s smart features for a handful of mud have in common? This Week in Tech will tell you - all the best tech news, all in one place, with Leo Laporte and friends.

From analog rejection to digital resurrection - Films Not Made hosts Amy Hobby and Avi Zev Weider unearth both Hollywood and indie film projects too wild, weird, or ambitious to ever hit the big screen. You’ll hear writers, directors, and producers ripping open old wounds by pulling out abandoned scripts, impossible casting lists, and brutal rejection letters. These honest conversations with creators become AI resurrections of the movies that never were.

What can a tiny worm tell us about human ageing, and could gut bacteria hold the key to a longer, healthier life? Beyond Longevity, a new podcast exploring the cutting edge of longevity science through in-depth conversations with leading researchers, clinicians, and innovators who are redefining what it means to age well. Each episode translates complex science into clear, compelling discussions — unpacking the evidence behind living longer and healthier, one conversation at a time.

Menopause isn’t a moment, it’s the rest of your life. On The Second Opinion with Dr. Sharon, leading OBGYN Sharon Malone, a perimenopause and menopause expert with over 30 years of experience, helps women take back the conversation on hormones and aging. This week, Dr. Sharon talks to Gayle King about her intimate experiences with hormone changes, and what she wishes she’d known before starting menopause. Plus, Gayle looks back on how she and best friend Oprah knew so little despite their access to resources.

In This Is Small Business, a new season brings some BIG changes - bringing listeners into the room for honest, in-person conversations about the inner life of entrepreneurship. These are stories about confidence and doubt, momentum and pressure, tough decisions you have to make long before the outcomes are clear. Each episode focuses on moments of transition, when founders are forced to rethink what they are building and who they are becoming along the way.

Battles of the First World War is a show looking at the battles of the Great War of 1914-1918. The show dives into the details of how and why these battles unfolded and happened as they did; and revisits the stories of the men and women who lived, fought, and died during the first titanic struggle of the 20th Century. The new season focuses on the 2nd Battle of the Marne, the turning point of 1918.

The Listening Tube begins its fifth year and 14th season this week! Host Bob Woodley speaks with Constitution advocate Jen Brown about government overreach and separation of powers. Bob examines how the Legislative Branch is getting weaker through its own inaction. Next week, Sidney Pines, author of Awakening: A patriots diary of American Deception joins Bob on the program.