Creators are leveraging CTV channels as added value for sponsorship deals by Alexander Lee
While CTV platforms have had some content creator presence for years (I recall discovering YouTubers were re-uploading their content to Prime Video in the mid-2010s), a focus on creator-led content has increased noticeably in recent years. Tubi, SamsungTV Plus, Roku, everybody’s getting in on the action with dedicated free ad-supported TV (FAST) and ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) channels serving everything from video podcasts to Mr. Beast reruns. With this new avenue of exposure, four creators and talent managers specializing in content creators tell Digiday they’re leveraging new CTV licensing deals to increase rates for sponsored content. With more exposure and a wider audience comes more appeal to premium brands, as well as the value-add of baked-in sponsorships appearing on multiple platforms instead of just YouTube or just Spotify. Influencer management and marketing agency Trend CEO Ted Raad tells Digiday adding CTV to the toolkit of content creators likely will influence the future of brand partnerships and soften the barrier between social content and TV.
Washington’s digital ads tax goes into effect on Oct. 1. What could go wrong? by Jasmine Sheena
Washington state has a new ad tax going live next month which will impact all digital and nondigital services related to the “creation, preparation, production, or dissemination of advertisements.” As Marketing Brew’s reporting shows, the law reclassifies digital ads (previously sorted as digital automated services) as retail transactions, making WA retail sales tax apply. With only a few weeks left until the tax is implemented, the mechanics of how it’ll work and who it’ll impact remain up in the air, causing concern in several camps. Including Washington’s own existing laws regarding data collection, as taxing ads would also require new data-collecting apparatus to keep track of who needs to be taxed and for what.
EXCLUSIVE: The New York Times Is Shutting Down Its Audio App by Mark Stenberg
For two years the New York Times has run a separate app specifically for their audio content alongside the primary NYT News app. According to deputy managing editor Sam Dolnick, Audio is being retired in early October. The audio content will live in the “Listen” tab of the News app, which was introduced back in March. Third-party publishers who had featured content in Audio (e.g. The New Yorker) will not make the jump to the Listen tab of News, but the full NYT podcast archive will.
Brazil: the digital giant the podcast industry keeps underestimating Renato Bontempo
An argument for the business of podcasting to pay closer attention to the growing market in Brazil. Even setting aside the raw numbers like size and population, Brazil proves to be an internet-savvy country. In GWI’s Global Digital Report 2024, Brazil came second place in countries with the highest average amount of time spent on daily internet usage. Brazilian respondents aged 16 to 64 clocked an average of 9 hours and 13 minutes online, over two hours higher than the worldwide average of 6 hours and 40 minutes. Brazil’ s online presence is hard to ignore (I recall the mass influx of Brazilian accounts on Bluesky the day they were region-locked out of X, that was a wild time) and their podcasting scene is no longer the fledgling possibility of a podcast industry: it exists and Bontempo suggests there’s billions in potential revenue waiting to be realized.
AdImpact: 2026 Midterm Expected To Be Most Expensive On Record.
This years’ Political Projections Report for the 2025/2026 season anticipates political ad spend for the 2026 midterm election cycle in the U.S. is going to reach $10.8 billion. While a slight decrease from 2024’s presidential election peak, it represents a 21% increase over the 2022 midterm election races. Linear TV is expected to retain the lion’s share of spend with 49% of ad dollars, though connected TV is noted as the fastest-growing platform and the only one AdImpact expects to get increased spend compared to 2024. Given 2024 is now firmly codified as the U.S.’s first “podcast election,” I can think of another medium that’s likely gonna see a spike in political spend next year.
As for the rest of the news…
- Thursday, September 18th, at 1:00 p.m. EST Podscribe and AdAge are presenting a free webinar on podcasting’s “ROI revolution”
- Speaking of Podscribe, their monthly Industry Rankings has been updated with September data (including New Heights’ chart-bump from the Taylor Swift album announcement).
- Broadcast Dialogue has a piece covering The Podcast Landscape 2025 data, including signs of the podcast industry’s maturation.
- Pushkin Industries has announced their 2025 fall programming slate of podcasts.
- Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear has signed a deal to bring his podcast over to the SiriusXM Podcast Network, with the show broadcasting on Progress channel 127 and SiriusXM acquiring global ad sales rights to the audio version.
- PodcastOne has reached 207 total shows with the addition of review comedy show Beach Too Sandy, Water Too Wet and sales rights to Sam Roberts-hosted Notsam Wrestling.
- Zeno Media has announced the launch of Zeno Plus, an AI-powered broadcast toolkit for both radio and podcast production, distribution, and monetization.
