Audio is still #1 for podcasts

• Audio is still the #1 way to consume podcasts, despite the chatter about video. That’s one of the findings of the latest Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights Podcast Download Report, published yesterday. Over half of podcast consumers on YouTube also listen to the same podcasts on another platform. Only 8% just watch podcasts, a number that hasn’t changed since 2022. You can download the report in full, and watch the webinar this Thursday.

• Podcast powerhouse Goalhanger has announced a new show: The Rest is Science, hosted by Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens. It’s launched on November 25, and described as “video-first”.

• An upcoming news podcast from the BBC, Asia Specific, is being made in video - but the video will only be on YouTube, and won’t be on the BBC’s own website, Podnews can reveal. The podcast launches tomorrow on all podcast platforms, but in spite of the BBC having a comprehensive video service on its international website, the only way to watch this new show - filmed twice-weekly at the BBC’s bureau in Singapore - will be to visit a US-owned website. All this while the President of the US, Donald Trump, has threatened to sue the BBC for up to $5bn for a misleading edit, which is more than the BBC’s entire annual income from the UK public.

• In France, Le Monde has chosen Acast for podcast monetisation and distribution. The French news-brand has three shows: daily podcast L’Heure du Monde claims 12.5mn listens since the start of the year.

• A paid article in The Wrap today - also carried on MSN - focuses on Inception Point AI. The AI podcasting company produces more than 3,000 episodes a week, mostly without any human checking of the output: and they’re being listened-to. The article suggests it has already generated twelve million episode downloads, has 400,000 subscribers, and is on track to produce 150,000 episodes by the end of the year.

  • The article claims that all shows contain a disclosure “at the top” of the episode. However, checking recent episodes, like this or this, they don’t contain any disclosure in the audio. Approached for comment, the company tells Podnews that all new episodes should contain verbal disclosures - not always at the start - but acknowledge that some new episodes still do not have this disclosure: and that they will prioritise adding them.
  • We spoke to the company’s CEO, Jeanine Wright, in September, for the Podcast Business Journal.

• iHeart has added iHeartRadio Highlights - shareable video moments from its radio and podcast shows. The shorts are produced using AI by Genuin.

What Makes Podcast Search Optimization (PSO) Different from SEO?

Paid content

You’ve probably heard of SEO, the practice of optimizing websites to appear higher on Google. And yes, SEO can help people find your podcast through your website or blog.

But most podcast discovery happens inside Apple Podcasts and Spotify, where different rules apply. That’s where Podcast Search Optimization (PSO) comes in. It’s about making your show visible within those listening platforms by optimizing your titles, descriptions, and keywords. These are the exact elements the algorithms analyze to match podcasts with relevant searches.

Unlike charts that reflect popularity and engagement, PSO gives you control. 💪 It helps you rank higher in search results organically, no matter your show’s size or starting point.

Want to see how it works in action? Download for free our case study “From Invisible to Top 5: How Podcast Host Courtney Elmer Climbed the Apple Rankings through Podcast Search” and discover how she used PSO to:
1️⃣ Rank 12 keywords in the Top 5 and 14 in the Top 10 on Apple and Spotify
2️⃣ Achieve +99 position jumps for several episodes in Apple Podcasts’ search results
3️⃣ Grow her downloads by +41% in just 1 month

👉 Download the full case study with all her strategy

Podcast News

The Nightly, a bedtime podcast, is now freely available. The show is produced by Hatch, the makers of a sleep support tool called Restore. On average, Hatch users spend over 35 minutes a day listening to unwind content from its subscription service.

The Atlantic has launched Galaxy Brain, a new video podcast hosted by staff writer Charlie Warzel about making sense of the online fire hose of our information ecosystem. In new episodes released every Friday, Charlie will be joined by a different guest to ask big questions about the intersection of online culture and human behavior. The first guest is the YouTuber Hank Green on what it means to survive online for 26 years.

Fascinating with Sasha Tobago has started a new season called The United States of Yum - showcasing the favorite flavors of the country, one alphabetical letter each week.

Season 3 of award-winning podcast Face-Off: The U.S. vs China launches today. Hosted by Jane Perlez, Fellow at the Belfer Center and former New York Times Beijing Bureau Chief, along with Rana Mitter, professor of modern China history, they unpack the turbulent relationship between the world’s two superpowers.

It’s been 75 years since the US had a national water strategy. On the new season of Audacious Water, host John Sabo, Director of the ByWater Institute at Tulane University, explores why that matters and what a modern plan should look like. Through conversations with experts in science, policy, and infrastructure, this season explores what’s needed for a water strategy that works for every community.