Apple Podcasts on iPad gets a makeover

• iOS 16.1 and iPadOS 16.1 was released. On the iPad, Apple Podcasts has been redesigned with a new sidebar. Disappointingly, it’s still not using the new useragent functionality. Apple, which has made $167B in profit for the last twelve months, is also raising prices for TV+, Music and Apple One.

• Audry, a community of podcasters, is to close on Nov 15 “due to various factors”.

• Acast has launched a first-party data targeting solution, which it claims is an industry first. It’s available in the US and Australia.

• A popular UK podcast, Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe’s Parenting Hell, is to move to Spotify as an exclusive. The comments to the twitter announcement are overwhelmingly negative towards the change.

  • Keep It Light Media, Parenting Hell’s, um, parent network with additional titles like Alan Carr’s Life’s a Beach and Wolf and Owl, is moving to Megaphone and joining the Spotify Audience Network. Those shows remain available everywhere; they were with Global’s DAX.

• The Sports Podcast Awards 2023 are now open for entry. There are 23 categories, and close in mid November.

• Thirteen podcasts will receive funding from Spotify’s Africa Podcast Fund. It will be administered by Africa Podfest.

• PodcastSaver is a website that lets you “easily download your favourite podcasts”. As this Hacker News post makes clear, it’s also a search engine testing tool.

• A study by NuVoodoo claims that 38% of podcast listeners have bought something they heard advertised in a podcast.

Moves and hires

• Vicky Etchells is now Head of News and Factual Podcasts at Global, moving from Head of Newsgathering at the company. Chris Lander is now Head of Comedy and Entertainment Podcasts at Global, following a career working for comedy talent companies. Their appointments were announced by Megan Wastell.

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Podcast News - with Lemonada Media

From Lemonada Media: Raised by Ricki looks back on and re-examines the groundbreaking Ricki Lake Show. Hosted by award-winning talk show host Ricki Lake and television personality and digital creator Kalen Allen.

Case 63 launched today on Spotify. The series features the voices of Academy and Emmy Award-winning actor Julianne Moore and Golden Globe-winning actor Oscar Isaac. It follows a New York psychiatrist who begins treating a patient registered as Case 63 who claims to be from the year 2062. What begins as routine therapeutic sessions quickly turns into a story that threatens the boundaries of the possible and the real. The series is produced by Spotify’s Gimlet studios, Moore’s production company FortySixty, and Isaac’s Mad Gene Media.

From Fool & Scholar, Travis Vengroff and Kaitlin Statz release a new kids and family musical podcast The Boar Knight. A charming story about friendship, it’s their first series in the kids and family space. Fool & Scholar’s podcasts have won 52 Audio Verse Awards and have garnered more than 20 million downloads.