Video podcasts leads to audio consumption

• Perhaps video is the new gateway drug for podcasting. 72% of new podcast listeners, and 68% of long-time podcast listeners say they have started listening to the audio-only version of a podcast after discovering its video version. That’s according to data that Edison Research revealed earlier this week in The Evolving Ear. The company also says that video podcasts are now more popular than audio-only podcasts among new podcast consumers; though this popularity is based on number of people, not necessarily time spent. The research cautions us to be prepared for changes in consumption.

• Spotify says that sports podcast consumption goes wild on the run up to the Super Bowl - +172% above average last year on the lead-up to the game - but in fact the days following the game saw a +358% surge. You’d expect this to also be the case for other podcast platforms. Spotify’s Bryan Berner tells us that “Sports fandom doesn’t start at kickoff or end at the final whistle anymore — it lives in the conversations that happen before and after the game. The level of engagement we see creates a powerful environment for brands to show up in ways that feel timely, relevant, and aligned with fan passion.” The Super Bowl is on Feb 8.

  • By the way - Spotify coyly called it “The Big Game” in their email to us; here’s why. We’re calling the Super Bowl in our coverage (because 15 U.S.C. § 1125(c)(3)(B)), but for your podcast, you may wish to check whether you, too, have to call it “The Big Game”.

• Apple released their financial results - posting an all-time quarterly record. Apple Services (which includes the revenue from Apple Podcasts) reached a record of $30bn, up +14% year-on-year. The company acquired an audio AI startup called Q.ai for $2bn, for reasons that weren’t disclosed.

• “We believe in you, we’re standing with you, and we’re committed for the long haul.” With those words, Ashley Flowers’s Audiochuck has given a $1mn grant to IYG, a support organization for LGBTQ+ youth and young adults in Indiana. Audiochuck is based in Indianapolis; and the initiative comes at a critical moment, as LGBTQ+ youth in Indiana face disproportionately high rates of homelessness, barriers to mental health care, and the risk of taking their own lives.

• For the first time, Japan has a Podcast Festival - which will take place on March 14 and 15 in Akasaka in Tokyo. 30,000 people are expected; 35 live shows will be from major Japanese creators including radio and TV broadcasters, and independent shows. It’s the first real example of the country treating podcasting as a mainstream platform in its own right.

• Independent podcasts are set to be available on the Radio France app, after a new agreement with the PIA, the Syndicate of Independent Audio Producers. “Podcast inclusion is based on a principle of dual consent: studios put forward their programmes, while Radio France retains full editorial control over the final selection.”

• Signings: CreatorX has announced it will represent The Ebro, Laura, Rosenberg Show as the brand enters its next chapter of independent distribution and monetization … and Libsyn is to represent Sean Carroll’s Mindscape; it moves from Wondery.

• Awards: The One World Media Awards close for entries on Feb 9. The Awards celebrate bold, authentic storytelling that spotlights underreported stories and voices from the Global South; there are 14 categories … and WNYC/Gothamist has been honored with an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for its investigation, which aired on WNYC’s NYC Now local news podcast, of how an officer known as “Champagne” had been accused of abusing female inmates in Riker Island for years.

People news

• Cat Jaffee from the House of Pod has published her last newsletter, which you can read here. She details her work since 2017, supporting more than 2,000 podcast producers and launching more than fifty new shows; and she goes into the changes since 2023 in the media industry that have slowed things back down again.

Podcast News - with Airwave

For your Ambies Consideration: Redacted History has a nomination in Best DIY Podcast. It’s is a show “where we can have real, unfiltered conversations about the things that SOME FOLK don’t want us to talk about.”

Indie podcast MUMBELIEVABLE with Sonia Beldom is celebrating attracting some major names to the podcast. The show chronicles her childhood growing up with a hilarious, loving and often mortifying neurodiverse mother.

In the Podnews Weekly Review today, we talk to Wondercraft AI about their new video studio, and look into Goalhanger’s new investor.

From NRG, the National Research Group, Research Reframed offers a peek behind the curtain at how research is actually conducted, interpreted, and applied across media, entertainment, and technology. It’s hosted by Jasmina Saleh, Thought Leadership Director at NRG, and her first guests - perhaps not surprisingly - are NRG execs Fergus Navaratnam-Blair, Vice President of Thought Leadership, and Alan Miyazaki, Senior Data Analyst. They’ll discuss NRG’s Growing Pains report from last year which explored how Gen Alpha is redefining what it means to be a kid.

This Could Work is new from LA-based creative agency Saylor. It’s a podcast exploring big ideas, creative risk-taking, and the people pushing culture—and brands—forward.

Podcasts in the wild

Podnews reader June spots this in Haymarket railway station in Edinburgh: a Global-owned out-of-home display, with an ad for the Global Player, promoting three Global shows.