Audio: the “foundation” of podcasting

• Audio remains the bedrock of podcasting, says a new report from Nielsen. 90% of monthly podcast consumers choose to listen, the data suggests, and most of podcast consumption is still audio, by a large margin. It quotes Edison Research’s Share of Ear for Q1, which sys that 20% of time spent with ad-supported audio is podcasting: radio is more than three-times larger.

• Podcasting is continuing to grow in the UK; though Brits are disapproving of AI hosts - The UK Podcast Consumer 2026 was released yesterday by Edison Research at SSRS. UK shows are also reaching a considerable amount of Americans, the study shows. The podcast landscape in the country is very top-heavy, with the top 10 titles reaching a third of all weekly podcast consumers.

• The podcaster behind The Pragmatic Engineer has pulled his video from Spotify, writing a long piece on LinkedIn detailing the issues he’s had, and suggesting that the company doesn’t care about reliability or execution.

  • Meanwhile, co-founder of podcast production company Podmasters, Martin Bojtos, tells the Podnews Weekly Review this week that, for a while, the #1 source of revenue for the company was video income from Spotify’s partner program. The company is celebrating its tenth anniversary.
  • The company’s changes at Megaphone - to use a new ad server - take place today.

• The UK government has announced plans to ensure that UK-licenced radio stations must be available on smart speakers operated by Alexa, Google and Siri. A consultation has launched today. It doesn’t impact podcasting directly: podcasts are also available through these services. The news has been welcomed by commercial radio trade body Radiocentre.

• Netflix published viewer data for the first six months of 2026. However, the company has hidden any data about podcasts - “all video podcasts are calculated under other shows”, the datafile says. (Does Netflix have this movie?) The company revealed Q2 revenue of $12.56 billion (up +13% year-on-year), slightly missing expectations.

  • One set of people who have helped Netflix grow: YouTubers. Deadline reports that many are still uploading content to YouTube. Podcasters have accepted an apparent requirement for video exclusivity by Netflix, however.
  • If you’d like to compare your podcast, we’ve built this little tool to let you do that - just tell it how many plays you’re getting each month, and your average duration, to see how you stack up to all the shows and movies on Netflix.

• YouTube suggests that in 2025, it contributed over $60bn to the US economy, and supported the equivalent of 540,000 full-time jobs.

• A new AI tool uses cloned voices - with consent - to voice host-read advertising on podcasts. The tool is from a company called ekoz.ai, and suggests that it is able to significantly scale host-read ads. The company is working with, among others, Triton Digital and Spreaker, which are owned by iHeart; that company markets its radio stations as “guaranteed human”.

Tips and tricks - with Podcast Movement NYC's Public Vote

• Bryan Barletta of Podcast Movement is interviewed in this week’s Podnews Weekly Review with lots of details about Podcast Movement - and discussing how voting is going for some of the sessions.
• Should you join a podcast network? Stephen Perlstein of Libsyn tells us how to vet any deal you’re offered - as recorded in Podcast Movement last year.

Podcast News - with Airwave

With Airwave and TWiT.tv: Intelligent Machines explores the most exciting revolution humanity has ever seen, filled with promise and peril. On this show you’ll meet the AI pioneers, inventors, and innovators who are about to disrupt every aspect of modern life. From TWiT, today explore why the next tech revolution might depend on which models stay truly open—and who gets to keep using them.

Want new trailers for new shows you might really like? New Podcasts is where to find them. (And it’s where to submit your shows here, too!)

Who is Posh George - the convicted criminal who is behind the far-right politician Nigel Farage? A new season of Times Investigates discovers more about George Cottrell, and was integral to the reporting that ultimately led to Farage resigning and calling a by-election.

Your Best Friends in Business is new this week, promising candid interviews, hot takes on what it actually takes to grow a business, and the kind of practical takeaways that only come from founders currently making these calls themselves. It’s produced by Pod People.

Witch Path Next? launches today. Through folklore, magical history, rituals, everyday practice and honest reflection, the host Med Stroud invites listeners to explore their own path while discovering the stories, traditions and communities that continue to inspire modern witchcraft. The show reached #1 in one Apple Podcasts chart before launch.

Greenhouse gas accounting is getting more important - and more complicated. At the exact moment the world needs clearer climate accountability, the number of standards, frameworks and methodologies continues to grow. A special mini-series from Navigating Net Zero with Alexia Kelly explores the tools and standards shaping how organizations measure emissions, and assess real-world climate impact.