Podscape Submissions are Now Open
The Podscape, a joint project between Magellan AI and Sounds Profitable, is a biannual infographic designed to give a bird’s-eye view of the business side of podcasting. A city map, in essence, charting out various neighborhoods in which podcasting companies live based on what services they provide. Every six months we regroup and process new submissions, update existing ones, and tweak any changes necessary to keep this living document going. In anticipation of our Winter update, the new Podscape submission form is live now and will be taking new submissions until end-of-day, Friday, November 21st.
Netflix is Shopping for Video Podcasts
First up, on Monday Ashley Carman covered reports from anonymous sources that Netflix is in talks with iHeartMedia. According to said sources, Netflix is seeking similar terms to their much-publicized deal with Spotify, which would cause full episodes of the licensed video podcasts to become Netflix-exclusive, no longer uploaded to YouTube.
Then, on Wednesday, sources familiar with the matter tell The Hollywood Reporters’ Caitlin Huston that Netflix has also come a-knockin’ to SiriusXM Media. Similarly to the iHeartMedia source, the SiriusXM source tells Huston the deal would likely also involve video exclusivity for full episodes, just like the Spotify partnership.
With the Spotify deal this siloing of content makes sense, as David Zucker’s math found all 16 podcasts in Spotify’s first wave going to Netflix combined get fewer YouTube views than Good Hang with Amy Poehler in the same timeframe.
SiriusXM in particular has put strong focus on building out the YouTube side of their video podcasting ecosystem (see: two stories from now). Even taking into account Netflix potentially being fine aiming lower than taking Alex Cooper behind the paywall, it’d be an unexpected move to see any big names from SiriusXM or iHeart take a Rogan-in-2020-esque exclusivity deal.
Top Podcast Hosting Companies by Episode Share (October 2025)
Livewire Labs is back with another report on the health of the industry. Their chart of top podcast hosting companies by episode share independently verified each podcast episode published on tracked platforms using media file urls instead of feed url domains, a method they say leads to undercounting hosts who offer custom domains. A quote from Livewire on edge cases that might cause confusion:
“In cases where a retail podcast host uses another podcast host to serve the audio, we credit the first host. In cases where a podcast migrates from one host to new host, we credit the new host. In general, the intent is to identify the podcast host the podcaster would say they are dealing with.
We were not able to identify a known host for 3.14% of the new episodes found in October.”
Overall episode rate is up 0.2% month-over-month. 29.5% of October podcast episodes were published on Spotify, with Spreaker in second place with 18.5% and Buzzsprout at 10%.
SiriusXM Reports 33 Million Subscribers, Beats Wall Street Expectations by Caitlin Huston
The Q3 report from SiriusXM offers up $2.16 billion in quarterly revenue. While down 1% year-over-year, it exceeds previous analyst expectations. As has become a common refrain in big company reports, podcast advertising shines. A quote from the article:
“Podcasting advertising was again a bright spot, with the company seeing ad revenue in that sector up 50 percent, while overall ad revenue grew just 1 percent year over year. The podcast segment helped offset declines in music streaming ad revenue (SiriusXM also owns music-streaming site Pandora).”
Chief Content Officer Scott Greenstein, when asked about advertising potential for SiriusXM video podcasts, noted the growth in the video space and potential he sees in the space for their video podcast stable.
Local Podcasts, Big Payoff: How Broadcasters Are Turning Homegrown Talent Into Digital Gold.
Inside Audio Marketing looks into the world of local radio adopting podcast production as part of their growth strategy. Industry experts say the key for local radio to gain a foothold in podcasting is actually leveraging local talent, audiences, and sales opportunities. Amplifi Media founder Steven Goldstein points to local radio’s easiest path into podcasting: making the best, most relevant local material available as a podcast.
That said, going a step above is where the real gold is. A quote from Goldstein:
“The bigger unlock is original, on-demand local content — neighborhood stories, business leaders, food culture, local sports voices. People care deeply about what’s happening where they live, and almost no one is serving that as a consistent, modern audio product.”
Hubbard Radio has done similar podcast strategies for a decade, turning stations into the audio equivalent of cable access. Local coaches hosting sports podcasts, local professors hosting shows relevant to their chosen research field. With that investment comes new revenue streams, as Hubbard tells Inside Audio Marketing their podcasts attract advertisers who don’t run on traditional radio.
As for the rest of the news…
- Noble Mobile – Andrew Yang’s phone plan built around refunding users’ unused data and minutes – announced a new partnership with TYT to further both companies’ goals of reducing phone use and responsible media consumption. To mark the occasion, new Noble Mobile subscribers who sign up and stay for three months using TYT’s link get $50 in credit.
- Filmmaker Shaun Michael Colón is taking his new podcast industry documentary Age of Audio on the road with several screenings this month, including one this afternoon as part of the Resonate Pangea podcast festival.
- Acast has published the 2025 edition of their Podcast Pulse report, which finds podcasters tie with journalists for most-trusted product and brand recommendations, ahead of YouTubers, social media influencers, and celebrities.
- Adweek examines City Cast’s recalibration as City Cast 2.0 incorporates social video as a core pillar of the company, and their renewed focus on cities in the Goldilocks zone of large enough populations to support daily newsletters/podcasts, while also still having a unified sense of community.
- Magellan AI has a new quarterly report. Key findings include a 26% increase of podcast ad spend year-over-year, nine out of ten top spenders in Q3 also being top senders in Q2, and a 41% increase in brands advertising on podcasts for the first time (1,689 new brands in all).
- Amplifi Media founder Steven Goldstein has a new article about why mediocre podcast content doesn’t stand a chance in the “great content flood” brought on by generative AI tools becoming more widespread.
