Steven Bartlett launches video podcast hosting company

• Flightcast, a new, video-first podcast platform, has been launched by Steven Bartlett, the host of The Diary Of A CEO, and Roxcodes, the former engineer at MrBeast. The tool is an all-in-one platform for distributing, analyzing, and growing video podcasts across YouTube, Spotify, Apple, and more.

  • We’ve a few screenshots of the platform in The Tech Stuff below; and there’s a video linked from the press release.

• Exclusive: Podcast hosting and marketing platform Ausha has announced that shows hosted on its platform have surpassed 1 billion cumulative downloads. The company attributes its success to its range of marketing tools that help increase podcast visibility.

• The IAB suggests that podcast advertising will top $3bn in 2025 for the first time, according to Matt Shapo, who was speaking at the IAB Podcast Upfront last week. Ad Results Media suggested that Audio’s Future Is Louder, Smarter, and More Visual Than Ever in a piece about the event.

• In Spain, Spotify held its Podcast Live Sessions event with some of the country’s biggest podcasters. One in three Spotify users in Spain consumes podcasts, the company said: and the country is the ninth biggest for global podcast consumption.

• Last week, we covered the news that an episode of Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO is being shown in UK cinemas at US$20 a ticket the day before it’s released for free on YouTube and Spotify. That raised a few eyebrows on social media - after all, who would pay to watch a podcast that’ll be free twelve hours later: so, how’s it doing for sales? In Glasgow, about 90% of the seats are sold; in Manchester, about 80% sold; one screen in London is entirely sold out, another is about 60% full; though the big screen in London has plenty more space.

• Audacity, the open source audio editor, is up for a big redesign. You can download a pre-alpha; which one YouTuber has and given it a bad review. The video we link to covers that, and gets into the new Audacity design after about 5’15”.

• The Golden Globes podcast eligibility list has been widely criticised, for not including New Heights despite its wide talkability this year, and, being based solely on popularity, having no limited-run, narrative podcasts. As one example, a show like Kill List, Podcast of the Year at the recent British Podcast Awards, would not achieve eligibility.

  • New Heights gets a namecheck in Taylor Swift’s new album.

• The New Jersey Web Festival announced its 2025 audio fiction award winners. The “best of the best” award went to Howl, “a lyrical dark fairytale for everyone who has ever had their voice silenced.”

The Tech Stuff - with RSS.com

• Things we’ve not seen before: Flightcast appears to have access to a video publishing API at Spotify, judging by one of its screenshots. One of its analytics screens shows “time with video visible on screen”. And its AI-powered analytics seem really smart, with simple human queries or detailed analysis.

• Transistor’s statistics show “downloads appearing to come from web browsers” have increased 173% since February. Buzzsprout’s statistics show web browsers jumping 163% in the same timeframe. Libsyn’s stats also show a significant increase in the past few years (though their figures are actually down since Feb). For our own podcast we’re also seeing increases in browser traffic - or, at least, in things that pretend they’re browsers. Is there something going on?

• Whisper-CPP has been updated to v1.8, with performance improvements.

• The Podnews Daily podcast is now available in two HLS streaming formats - a master manifest linking to a low and high bitrate stream. It’s in the alternateEnclosures in our RSS feed.

Moves and hires

• Lots of new hires at The Guardian in the UK:
  • Annie Kelly is appointed Today in Focus presenter, joining Helen Pidd and Nosheen Iqbal fronting the flagship daily news podcast.
  • Lucy Hough is appointed Today in Focus Extra presenter, with Zoe Hitch appointed lead producer and Ryan Ramgobin joining from Channel 4 News as senior producer.
  • James Tindale joins from Pod Save the UK as lead producer, video for audio, and will help shape and execute the publisher’s video podcast strategy.
  • Eternity Uwaifo joins as a social video producer and Natalie Gegan joins as a social video designer.
  • Rory Symon joins from The News Agents as video producer and Matt Bentley-Viney has joined as a social video producer - both will work on the Football Weekly podcast.

Podcast News - with Airwave

For your Signal Award consideration: The Box of Oddities for Best Weird Show. The Webby Award-winning “Box of Oddities" is a podcast that delves into the strange and mysterious aspects of our world, exploring topics ranging from bizarre medical conditions to unsolved mysteries, and from paranormal phenomena to strange cultural practices from around the world. With a focus on oddities, curiosities, and the macabre, each episode is a journey into the unknown, where hosts Kat and Jethro Gilligan Toth share their love for unusual stories and inject their humor and commentary.

For your Signal Award consideration: Sleep Cove for Best Sleep Podcast. If you are one of the many people who can’t sleep, join us in listening to our Podcast. You’ll hear relaxing sleep hypnosis, guided sleep meditations and bedtime stories – all designed to help you relax and get a peaceful night’s sleep.

The Media Club with Matt Deegan this week comes from the British Podcast Awards, and includes an interview with the founders of HERA, the female-focused video podcast company.

Twisted Tales with Heidi Wong is new from PAVE Studios today. Heidi Wong unearths the chilling true stories behind the world’s most terrifying legends. From haunted dolls to cursed houses, each episode reveals the disturbing real-life events that inspired horror’s biggest blockbusters and the ones too twisted to make it to screen.

On The Second Opinion, women take back the conversation on health. Hosted by Dr. Sharon Malone, this weekly chat show has straight talk, real experiences and solutions, with prominent female advocates, experts and patients sharing how they confronted gaps in the healthcare system and got (or created) the second opinions that saved their lives. From dismissed symptoms to systemic failures, Dr. Sharon pulls back the curtain on what’s really going on in women’s health and provides the tools you need to advocate for yourself.

Curious about what’s really happening in Denmark — and how it affects the life of internationals living in the country? Each week, two hosts from the Last Week In Denmark volunteer community talk through the top news stories and developments — in English — sharing personal insights and international perspectives. It’s a clear and accessible conversation about life in Denmark, made for people who live in Denmark but didn’t grow up in Denmark.

Podcast Promotion in the wild

On a Bakerloo line tube train in London a few weeks ago, your Editor spotted this ad for Quite right!, a new podcast from The Spectator featuring Madeline Grant (assistant Editor) and Michael Gove (Editor) (also known as The Right Honourable The Lord Gove PC, and also Baron Gove of Torry in the City of Aberdeen). A surprising amount of the London Underground now has mobile data coverage, making this a good place to advertise; advertising in tube trains is sold by Global, which also owns ad exchange DAX, radio stations and podcast hosting company Captivate.

Podcasting will grow more if we market it more. Seen a podcast being promoted somewhere in the wild - other than on a podcast? Let us know by hitting reply.