iHeart podcast division (not) for sale?

• iHeart is “exploring the sale of part - or potentially all - of its podcast business”, says Bloomberg in a paid article. It cites apparent discussions with an investment bank. iHeart has “no plan to sell our podcasting business”, says iHeart in response. Given it’s a successful part of the company - reporting $174mn in revenue for the past quarter, up 24.6% year-on-year - some have expressed surprise that iHeart would want to sell. The CEO, Bob Pittman, said in this week’s earnings call that iHeart plans to split out its podcast business from its Digital Audio Group, to report them as stand-alone segments to help investors understand its value. That isn’t the sound of a man looking to sell; though one industry observer cryptically said to us: “but, where there’s smoke…”

  • iHeart’s share price rallied slightly on the news - and perhaps that was the plan; our sister publication Podcast Business Journal reports that iHeart’s shares have lost two-thirds of their value this week.
  • Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that iHeart was in merger talks with SiriusXM.

• Goalhanger’s thriller fiction podcast Bear Hunt is to get a second season, as the show hits 1 million downloads. Billed as a “British Bourne”, Bear Hunt follows a fictional British mission to assassinate the President of Russia, with a story spanning Westminster, Washington and deep behind enemy lines.

• “I left podcast production because of video. Now I have a video podcast” writes former employee of The Ringer, Bobby Wagner, looking back at his start in podcasting, and how the industry developed. He began working for The Ringer in 2018; he noted with excitement at the time that “I thought it was a borderline miracle that we occupied a corner of the internet that was interesting enough for there to be whole newsletters dedicated to it.” Hey! 👋

• So, you discovered that your podcast is up for the public vote in an award. But the leader already has more than 50% of the vote. And you’ve only four days left! How do you make sure you win? By taking lessons from a dancing spider, and a type of mould found in the damp floor of a forest. Pia Williams’s podcast, Feral by Design, focuses on biomimicry - studying and emulating things from nature; and she’s highlighted for us what she did to win.

• Acast has launched a new Analytics dashboard for its creators. The tool gives demographic information, de-duplicated unique consumers using audio and video, and also includes follower numbers from different websites, including social and YouTube.

• The winners of the Astra Podcast Awards were literally announced. The Hollywood Creative Alliance literally gave the prize for podcast of the year to Rob Lowe, who literally hosts the Team Coco podcast Literally! with Rob Lowe.

• Is podcasting the future of social media? Vocial thinks so - launching “micropodcasting” as a social network. The company says We’re not trying to reinvent social media. We’re trying to bring back what made it social.

• Congratulations to the Locked On Podcast Network, which has just crossed 1 billion listens+views in 2026, across audio, video, and social. (In 2025, it achieved 515 million; and there are still six weeks to go!)

• The Rock Fight podcast, which covers the outdoor industry and culture, has a new owner: the UK-based Raccoon Media Group has made a majority investment in the podcast. The current host, Colin True, will remain - and promises full editorial independence. Terms weren’t given.

• Audrina Patridge is returning to podcasting with a video-first show called Say More. The show is being monetised by Amplitude Media Partners (AMP).

Grow Your Podcast on YouTube

Paid content

More YouTube Views. More Watch Time. More Subscribers.

As an official podcast test partner of YouTube, Audiencelift helps podcasts with targeted campaigns built to grow views, watch time and subscribers.

Choose your goal: promote individual video views, increase watch time, or grow your channel with viewers most likely to subscribe.

And we can handle everything for you with turnkey campaign management, from setup and targeting through optimization and reporting. 

Performance is visible directly inside YouTube Studio.

Your podcast needs a YouTube growth strategy. We can help you build it.

Ready to grow your YouTube audience?

Learn more about Audiencelift’s YouTube Growth campaigns

Podcast News - with Airwave

With Airwave: Blowback is a podcast about the American Empire. The last season looked at the story of Angola, Cuba, and apartheid South Africa’s Cold War showdown.

From two former Ringer employees, Click Through launches this week - a Wikipedia deep dive video podcast about how the internet used to feel. The show will be shot entirely on location at coffee shops, bars, restaurants and other places in and around New York City.

Mostly Sheenius launches today, from Red Seat Ventures - Charlie Sheen’s new weekly interview podcast has Michael Douglas at the first guest. It was announced in August.

The Kent Ingle Podcast is the newest addition to the LifeAudio network Hosted by Dr. Kent Ingle, this weekly show features honest conversations with leaders, innovators, and creators on current events, faith, culture, and leadership. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.

In K-Spirits: How the US and Korea Create Evangelical Power Dr. Helen Kim uncovers the transpacific forces that transformed modern Christianity, and continue to shape politics on both sides of the Pacific.

Podcasts in the wild

Canadian reader Matt Cundill shares this clip of an ice hockey game. The US hockey player Brady Tkachuk, who has a podcast called Wingmen, requested a transfer away from Canada earlier in the year. Now playing for the Florida Panthers, he returned to play his former team, the Ottawa Senators. As you’ll hear from the audio, the crowd had some advice with what he should do with his podcast - we don’t think they’re shouting “DUCK YOUR PODCAST”, but it sounds quite similar.