Netflix podcasts are “low engagement”

• Is Netflix’s podcast strategy paying off? Writing in Puck ($), and reported in Awful Announcing, Matthew Belloni suggests that “multiple (Netflix) company sources have told me that podcast engagement numbers on the whole are low.” Belloni adds that “no video podcast has charted on Nielsen’s weekly top 10”.

  • Opinion: These two statements aren’t quite enough to suggest that Netflix has failed in adding podcasts. Edison Research reported earlier in the month that 14% of weekly podcast consumers have used Netflix to consume podcasts, and Samba TV has suggested 13% of Netflix households had consumed podcasts on the platform. As of the engagement figures: Samba TV’s data showed that 40% of all podcast views on the platform went to The Breakfast Club; which was 3x bigger than the #2 show, a Netflix companion podcast for Bridgerton. If Bridgerton only had 13% of podcast views, you can imagine that there is quite a long tail in popularity - and, if you’re just judging daily podcasts by views per episode, well, those engagement numbers might well be “low”.

• A councillor in St John’s NL, Canada, has been suspended after quoting from comments given by a guest of Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO, and presenting those claims as medical fact. The claims were made by Erica Komisar, an author and licensed clinical social worker. She isn’t a psychologist; and a registered psychologist interviewed by CBC News suggested that the claims made by Komisar were inaccurate.

  • Ireland’s RTÉ writes a piece on the rise of Steven Bartlett’s controversial show.

• Semafor reports that The Atlantic is doubling the size of its video team. Podcasts at the magazine have grown by 50% in downloads over the last year, and more than doubled revenue.

• How can you tell when a microphone company is supportive of podcasters? Here’s a “prime” example: when they don’t offer exclusive deals with only one online retailer. Shure is offering money off its range of microphones and earphones: the Shure website lists the deals; you can get the savings ($66 off the SM7B for example), “wherever you get your microphones” (Amazon or other authorised dealers across North America).

• Does podcast advertising work for Dominos Pizza? Libsyn has released a case study detailing how they helped the chain improve awareness of the company’s specialty pizzas, drove higher purchase intent (by up to +15 points), and strengthened brand perception by 20 points. (Libsyn’s report doesn’t mention Dominos by name: but we used a top-secret piece of internet technology called a “search engine” to unmask them).

• The Apple Podcasts logo is about to change again. The newest version of iOS and MacOS has a subtly different icon, with the differences visible here. Most visible is the bright purple circle around the listener’s head. (Logos in these developer betas may change before release).

• The 20 year-old Mormon Stories podcast has been the subject of a trademark and copyright suit brought by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church claims it’s an issue of confusion and says it isn’t trying to silence its critics; the podcaster says he’s worked with the church, and is surprised and perplexed at the legal action.

• Amazon’s Wondery has signed a deal with sports brand Boardroom for its podcasts Cover Story and Boardroom Talks. (One of the hosts of Boardroom Talks is “Speedy Morman”, which isn’t anything to do with any church.)

• Android Police reckons that YouTube Music is a great podcast player … A new podcast app Brink is reviewed by 9to5Mac

• If you’re using mysql or postgres as your podcast database, then Apple Podcasts has just ticked over ID number 2147483647 - which is the highest int you can store. You’ll be wanting a bigint from now. (Apple Podcasts seemingly moved from IDs starting 1896xxxxxx to 6780xxxxxx over the last 48 hours. Surprise!). (Hat-tip: @js)

How do people engage with podcast ads?

Paid content

Podcast advertising has long struggled with measurement challenges. Listeners skip, multitask, or tune out, making real impact hard to capture.

In YouGov’s U.S. podcast ads report 2026, we go beyond the skip button to uncover what actually drives effectiveness: how audiences respond to ads, which formats build trust, and what prompts real-world action, from searching to buying.

Based on a survey of 1,300+ U.S. adults, including 800+ podcast listeners, the report reveals how people truly engage with podcast advertising today.

We also explore the rise of video podcasts and how audio versus video consumption shapes engagement, trust, and ad response across key audiences.

Download the full report to learn how podcast ads really perform and what makes them work.

People News

• Jordan Peterson “can’t really return to podcasting or public lecturing”, but will be posting archive material. He’s been unwell for much of the year.

Tips and tricks

• Recently updated to include video, here’s all the information you need on how podcast stats work.

Podcast News - with Airwave

With Airwave: All the Books! is a weekly show of recommendations and enthusiasm regarding the week’s new book releases. This week, Vanessa recommends a queer cozy mystery (plus espionage!), historical fiction about lesser-known Black history, and a fun mystery about a mystery writer.

Matt Cundill’s Sound Off Podcast today interviews Dan Misener from Bumper about podcast stats and the Bumper score. He talks about the missing data from YouTube, and whether stats should be public by default. “We’re not trying to create standards,” Misener says - people can agree to buy advertising “with no industry body having to write a white paper in order to make that happen”.

AI transcription is fine if the show’s in English - but how about Hausa, or Pidgin, or Yoruba: or all three? Tony Doe’s Into The Podverse talks with the inventor of a new solution for podcasters in Africa: one that understands 'code-switching’. It’s the show’s fiftieth episode.

What do people mean when they say that gender is 'socially constructed’ and what does that have to do with mini-golf and fish tacos? On the new season of Seemingly Unrelated Dr. Andrew Johnstone and puppeteer Alicia Britt explore the unexpected histories behind gender’s most common associations from pink being a girly colour to men being the less emotional of the genders and the universal love for ice hockey.