Podcast appearances influence voters - say voters

• In the US, one in four podcast listeners say that a candidate’s podcast appearance might influence their vote. That’s according to new data from Sounds Profitable, released today ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

  • The Sounds Profitable data also suggests that podcasting is nearly evenly divided along party lines in terms of number of consumers. However, in terms of time spent listening, independents spend more time with podcasts according to new data also recently released from Edison Research.

• Jake Shapiro from Apple Podcasts is the guest for the PodBiz podcast this week, talking about HLS ads within Apple Podcasts. His appearance “coincides” with the show becoming available in HLS video for the first time in Apple Podcasts, via Acast.

  • Shapiro notes that “HLS ads are both audio and video”. Apple Podcasts will soon start charging advertising networks an impression-based fee for dynamic HLS ads - a charge which Podnews understands has slipped until early 2027. When it does, the company will be charging whether the user is watching or only listening.

• While Acast’s Podcast Pulse might suggest that podcast consumers use both audio and video, in Australia, PodPoll 26 - released today - asked a better question: “how do you prefer to consume podcasts”? Overwhelmingly, podcast consumers prefer to listen, the data shows: 60% saying they preferred audio, while only 23% say they prefer to watch podcasts. The research also shows that 50% of Australians are regular monthly podcast consumers: the first time in this study. We’ve more numbers from it here.

• A prominent YouTuber got his account hacked, and while it wasn’t his finest hour falling for the hack, it wasn’t YouTube’s either, trying to repair it. Calling the company “pathetic, useless and toothless”, he says: “Their account recovery chat takes - I’m not joking - 10 hours per message. What should be a 3 minute conversation can take literal days, despite your entire livelihood being on the line. And after initially managing to file a case with them, I was left with zero communication for over 96 hours. Literally nothing. In the end, the process of merely accessing my channel (not being able to revert all the changes, mind you) took 4 days. I still can’t change my channel name back which is fantastic, and I also can’t upload any videos or take the (hacked content) off my channel homepage for at least another 7 days apparently. Absolute joke of a company. I still haven’t been able to reset my AdSense payment method - if that isn’t unlocked by Tuesday I will miss the deadline and will have to go a month without being paid. If that happens, how am I supposed to pay rent? Pay my bills? Feed my kids?”

• SpotsNow has launched custom AI agents for podcast networks - a set of agents to take on the biggest bottlenecks in podcast ad sales. The tool promises networks can spend “more time selling, not preparing to sell”.

• StackAdapt has added podcast show-level targeting and exclusions to its ad planning tool. It’ll allow advertisers to focus on particular genres, or avoid content that doesn’t fit with their brand.

The Tech Stuff - with RSS.com

• Are you seeing lower figures for Apple Podcasts in your network? You probably should be - at the end of last week we reported on a bug, which we have now learnt was introduced in iOS 26, which probably means that much of the traffic from Apple Podcasts is appearing in “other Apple apps”. This won’t have an effect on “total downloads”, but will make Apple Podcasts much smaller than it should be.

  • In fact, if you’re following the IAB Podcast Measurement Guidelines correctly, you shouldn’t be seeing any Apple Podcasts traffic right now…

• CoHost has become the first podcast hosting company to be certified under the IAB Podcast Measurement Guidelines v2.3. The company achieved recertification on 15 October.

• If you missed it - the IAB’s new Podcast Measurement Guidelines v2.3 went live at the end of September. The specifications now live in GitHub.

People news

• Vittoria Checchini is now Head of Production for Podcasts at dmg media. She’s been with dmg for three years; previously, she’d worked for Sky News and Southern California Public Radio.

Tips and tricks - with Audiencelift

• Do you own a Blue Yeti microphone? Joe Coleman shares his five-point plan to get the most out of this ubiquitous microphone. Number 4 is our favourite.
• Posting on YouTube? The thumbnail can make quite a difference - especially when browsing on a smart TV. The BBC shared one learning - put a title in the top third of the thumbnail.

Podcast News - with Airwave

With Airwave: In Data Over Dogma, bible scholar Dr. Dan McClellan and atheist podcaster Dan Beecher team up to discover what the Bible actually says, and what it doesn’t say - even if everyone thinks it does.

Crown and Controversy: Kate Middleton, premieres this week from Caloroga Media: an ordinary girl from a village in Berkshire who went on to become the future Queen of England. The show traces the life of Catherine, Princess of Wales, from her childhood in Bucklebury to St Andrews, through the years of waiting the press labelled “Waity Katie,” and on to a wedding watched by hundreds of millions. It follows the rift with the Sussexes and a cancer diagnosis she shared publicly, in her own words. Nine episodes. Twenty years. The girl who chose the hardest life imaginable, and what it made her.

Before social media, the women of bluegrass had a bright blue newsletter that showed up in the mailbox and said what no one would say out loud. In Don’t Call Me Darlin’, host Carolyn Kendrick and co-creator Tristan Scroggins hit the road to find the women Murphy Henry profiled decades ago, in a story about genre, identity, feminism, and the communities we built before the internet. In conversations with legends such as Alice Gerrard, Kristin Scott Benson, Laurie Lewis, Missy Raines, Alison Brown, Rhonda Vincent, Sierra Hull, Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, and many more, our hosts learn how tradition can bring community together and how it can break it apart.

FIT4HER Unplugged just launched, covering fat loss, hormones, and reinvention for women over 40. Host Karen Gallagher, a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and Strength and Conditioning Coach, and her guests will bring raw, whole-life guidance that covers your body, mindset, relationships, and sense of purpose, without the extremes or the advice that was never built for a woman at this stage of life.

Podcasts in the wild

• We shared the online story a few weeks ago, but professional Rob Walch look-a-like Will Coley was featured in print in the New York Times yesterday. He makes private podcasts for couples getting married.