Youtube overtakes Spotify in the UK for podcasts

• YouTube is now the most popular service used for podcast consumption in the UK - two years after YouTube edged out Spotify in the US for the first time. Apple Podcasts is the fourth most popular in the country, after BBC Sounds, the corporation’s proprietary app. The data is from Edison Research at SSRS, who present The UK Podcast Consumer 2026 in a free webinar on Jul 16.

  • The data says 29% of weekly British podcast listeners, aged 15+, “choose YouTube as the service they use most to consume podcasts”. 28% choose Spotify, 15% choose BBC Sounds, and just 10% use Apple Podcasts. This doesn’t mean only 10% of podcast consumption happens on Apple Podcasts - just that Apple Podcasts isn’t “the service they use most”.
  • Apple Podcasts is still #1 for podcast downloads in the UK, however. Data from OP3, analysed by Podnews and shared today, shows that 37.5% of all downloads in the country go to Apple Podcasts; Spotify gets 31.7%, while Amazon Music is at 4.1%. But, there’s a big caveat: data like this doesn’t measure YouTube at all; and won’t measure Spotify video, or BBC Sounds.

• The video push from Apple Podcasts “shows early promise”, reports Bloomberg in a paid article. The article suggests that shows including video are seeing higher consumption numbers. Part of that is attributed to promotion by Apple within its app. However, Ashley Carman also reports that take-up of video by creators within Apple Podcasts is slow: only ten shows in the top 200 chart in the US currently offer video.

  • Part of the Bloomberg story suggests Acast is showing a 25% jump for consumption of shows with video on Apple Podcasts. The companies are working very closely - Apple Podcasts’s appearance at The Podcast Show in London shared the stage with Acast executives and talent; Acast was quick to promote that it was earning revenue from video podcasts (revenue that Apple will share in); and Apple Podcasts’s recent “Creators we love: UK & Ireland” feature only contained Acast video-enabled podcasts. 🤔

• Riverside has enabled integration with Apple Podcasts HLS video for those who host podcasts on the platform. The service is available for those on the Grow plan or above, and is touted to be part of Riverside 2.0 - the company’s “biggest release yet”.

• Spotify shoots! Spotify scores! The company tells us that soccer podcast listening in the US is up over 380% since the start of the competition, making the US the #1 market for soccer podcast listening globally for the first time. Red card? What red card?

• A tool that makes websites for your podcast, Podpage has made what it calls “the biggest update yet”, including SEO features that can “autofix” your SEO to make sure more people find it, an “autopilot” to produce more SEO metadata to ensure Google (and other things) will find your show, and a whole heap more things to come this week, we’re promised.

• Podtrac released its rankers for June. Crime Junkie from AudioChuck is a brand new entry at #1 for having the most US unique audience. (This has also been previously reported by Podscribe).

• What are the biggest shows of 2026… according to AI? Given that apparently many people trust AI tools for everything these days, The Podglomerate tested them out to discover which it would pick. The prompt that the company gave included a requirement for press coverage.

• The co-founder of the Diary of a CEO podcast, Jack Sylvester, has left the company. He has been out of the company for the last three months, travelling round South America. “For now I don’t know what’s next”. (We interviewed him in October 2024.)

The voices of cleaners from across Europe

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Today - a new documentary podcast explores the human stories behind one of the world’s most essential – and most overlooked – jobs: cleaning.

UNI Europa’s Unsung: Cleaners brings together the voices of cleaners across Europe, telling their stories in their own words - from invisible labour and night shifts to dignity and organising for change. We hear from people like Hayat Elhore, a cleaner at the European Parliament in Brussels; or Lisa Stenson, a hospital cleaner in Ireland who was assigned to the first COVID ward.

The podcast is released at a critical moment as the EU overhauls its public procurement rules governing €2,000 billion in annual spending. The rules determine the working conditions of millions of cleaners who are employed by private companies but carry out public contracts.

As you’ll hear in the four-part podcast, in many European countries a staggering proportion of cleaners come from migrant backgrounds. This isn’t a coincidence. It’s a pattern shaped by discriminatory immigration policies, labour market barriers and the systematic failure to recognise qualifications and skills gained elsewhere. Cleaners are skilled workers, who deserve to be paid properly.

Unsung: Cleaners is a podcast by UNI Europa, co-funded by the European Commission.

Listen now to Unsung: Cleaners on Spotify or find the “Macrodose” podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

Tips and tricks - with Podcast Movement NYC's Public Vote

• Tom Fox runs, among other things, the Texas Hill Country Podcast Network. He spoke at Podcast Movement x SXSW earlier this year, telling us that podcasting is part of the civic infrastructure of America.

Podcast News - with Airwave

With Airwave and TWiT.tv: Security Now features Leo Laporte and cybersecurity guru Steve Gibson, who break down the latest cybercrime and hacking stories, offering a deep understanding of what’s happening and how to protect yourself and your business. The latest edition talks about “paste protect”, which has nothing to do with wallpaper.

They’re part of the family - but what happens when your pet gets older? Senior Pet Talk launches today: a whole-medicine guide to becoming the most informed, prepared advocate for your senior pet. Host Dr. Amanda Steffen will help you spot hidden pain, tell normal aging from what needs attention, and navigate everything from dementia and kidney disease to nutrition and end-of-life planning.

New York Times Best Selling author, Elin Hilderbrand, unpacks every moment of the new Peacock series, based on her book in The Five Star Weekend Official Podcast. She sits down with the star studded cast and incredible crew to dig into how they went from page to screen, what it was like filming on Nantucket, the crave-worthy food, and what they would do on their own five-star weekend. The first two episodes are now available.

As we approach Occupy Wall Street’s 15th anniversary, a new series from Future Hindsight called Occupy! An Unfinished Uprising, gets inside the drama of the movement. Occupy changed the national conversation about capitalism, popularized the language of the 99%, and inspired a generation of activists. Occupy offers a reminder that collective action can reshape what seems possible.

Mwah! Smooch Fest - the Kissing Podcast is back for Season 2! It’s a celebration of the most iconic kisses in pop culture, hosted by Lena Olson (Writer/Producer/Smooch Connoisseur). For romantic comedy fans, queer millennials & lover girls, this season, Lena is joined by guests to discuss much loved smooches from Titanic, Heated Rivalry, Love Island, Gilmore Girls, the three-way kiss between Madonna, Christina Aguilera, and Britney Spears at the 2003 MTV VMA awards, and more.