Podcast listening on TV doubles in 2 years

• Consuming podcasts on TV has doubled in the UK in the past two years, according to Edison Research’s The UK Podcast Consumer 2025, which was released yesterday. The research also suggests that Spotify is the main podcast platform used in the country - BBC Sounds being more popular than Apple Podcasts.

• Nielsen launched Nielsen Podcast Fusion, a new dataset powered by Edison Research. It integrates Edison Podcast Metrics into Nielsen’s widely used media planning tool, Nielsen Media Impact (NMI). NPR and Ocean Media are among the charter subscribers at launch.

• For the first time in the US, 18-29 year-olds now listen to podcasts just as much as AM/FM radio. About ten years ago, AM/FM listening was seven times larger than podcast listening.

• Steve Boom of Amazon doesn’t want us to think that the Wondery reorg is anything to worry about for the industry at large. “Podcasting at an industry level is doing incredibly well, and I think it’s doing really, really well here too,” he tells The Ankler in an interview today. He also suggests that narrative shows are “monetized better [when] supported by a premium revenue stream” - by which he means subscriptions - “rather than purely an ads revenue stream”. Boom also spoke with Variety, where he claimed an “acceleration of video podcasting is really what prompted this restructuring.”

  • “There were a lot of smart people that made Wondery a prestige brand in this space” - Dan Granger from Oxford Road shares his thoughts on the Wondery reorg, alongside Sean King from Veritone, in the Podnews Weekly Review this week.
  • Further reading: Behind Wondery’s Break Up: Maximizing Podcast Profit Amid YouTube’s Video Dominance (The Hollywood Reporter); Podcasting’s 'Serial’ Era Ends as Video Takes Over (Bloomberg); Wondery: A Coming of Age Moment for Podcasting (John Wordock)
  • Wonderful people, all for hire: - here’s a list of former Wondery folk, with their ideal future roles and locations.

• Cumulus Media released its financial results for Q2/25. Total revenue was down 9.2% year-on-year. Digital revenue was down 1.4% year-on-year.

• The Radcast Network has launched its own podcasting platform. The move is claimed to offer “more advanced analytics” and more control over advertising.

• Goodpods has released a significant update to its social podcast app, including more detail of what your friends are listening to and recommendations.

• The five year-old political podcast Coffee with Ken is being sued by toy-maker Mattel. Ken Bibaraj hosts a thought leadership podcast that includes interviews with government officials, CEOs and entrepreneurs. Slightly perplexingly, Mattel fears people might confuse him for Barbie’s boyfriend. He’s not even blonde.

• A real-estate agency is now making tedious AI-generated podcasts for the houses they’re trying to sell you. Jim Acosta interviewed an AI-generated shooting victim. Meanwhile, thank you to those who spotted “JPMorgan Chase News Daily”, highlighted yesterday in our podcast data section slightly improbably in the “Animation and manga” category. It’s also AI slop, featuring an AI voice telling you whether the share price of JP Morgan has gone up or down. We’ve asked Apple Podcasts for its policy on AI-generated content.

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Moves and hires

• Wonderful people, all for hire: - here’s a list of former Wondery folk, with their ideal future roles and locations.

• Bella Shafer has been announced as Podcast Coordinator at The Radcast Network.

Tips and tricks - with Podcast Movement

• Serious About Podcast Growth? You Need KPIs, suggests The Podcast Sessions.

Podcast News - with Airwave

With Airwave: Proof takes America’s Test Kitchen’s inquisitive and relentless approach to telling unexpected, funny, and thought-provoking narratives about food and drink. This is not a recipe show. And this is not a show about celebrity chefs or what they like to eat. Proof plunges into history, culture, science, and the psyche to uncover the hidden backstories that feed your food-obsessed brain.

The Podnews Weekly Review focuses on the Wondery news. We speak to Dan Granger from Oxford Road, and Sean King from Veritone, to get their views on it. James suggests that Amazon’s suggestion about 'video’ having changed things is a poor excuse for the failure of any of its podcast businesses to perform, and likens it to passing wind in an elevator.

The Binge Cases: Doctor’s Orders is new from Sony Music and Western Sound. The show explores the shocking story of Dr. Munir Uwaydah, who allegedly built an empire of fraud to the tune of a quarter-billion dollars and was thought by some to be involved in a murder case, though he was never accused or charged.