Audio Remains The Primary Mode Of Podcast Consumption, Despite Growing Video Use by Elizabeth Mayer
For the fifteenth edition of Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights’ Podcast Download series, Quantilope conducted an in-depth study of 603 weekly podcast consumers in October. This Fall 2025 report’s key takeaways include the vast majority of consumers choosing to listen to audio when they have a choice between audio and video versions of the same show. 70% of weekly YouTube podcast consumers say they would switch to another platform if their favorite podcasts moved, and 52% say they already listen to the same podcasts on other platforms. The Podcast Download webinar going over the report is slated for this Thursday, November 20th, at 1:00 p.m. EST.
How loyal is your podcast audience? by Dan Misener
Every podcast has an “average lifetime value score” that can be used to track audience loyalty. A metric measured by tracking the average number of distinct calendar days each audience member spends with the show, effectively condensing an audience’s listening history into a single number tracking a typified “average” listener over time. While there is no one universal “good” number for a lifetime value score, there are shows that tend to generate higher ones than others. Daily podcasts tend to have more regular listeners returning regularly than weekly-uploads. Shows with sizable back catalogs that both old fans and new listeners can burn through also tend to score better. A metric that can be used to determine if an audience is actively growing, or possibly undergoing churn even as net-new listeners keep coming in. Inversely, if average lifetime value is increasing but overall audience size is trending downwards, the show could be accidentally super-serving a declining core audience and putting off the rest of the fanbase.
Pave Teams Up with Kathryn Nicolai for First-Ever Nothing Much Happens Live Virtual Event
On Wednesday, November 19th, the bedtime story podcast Nothing Much Happens will host its first ever live event, produced by PAVE’s OpenMind brand and hosted on their PAVE.LIVE event platform. The event will feature three bedtime stories, music from guest IAHIAL, live fan chat, and a printable PDF for the audience to participate in journaling prompts and coloring. For a more VIP experience, audiences can pay $5 extra for access to a 30 minute post-show hangout with the host and sound designer, a live audience Q&A session, extended in-universe material, and behind-the-scenes content. Virtual podcast live shows are relatively commonplace, but this partnership between Nicolai and PAVE shows there’s still plenty of room to customize and upgrade the experience beyond a simple paywalled Twitch stream. It’s not just a live show, it’s designed around the entire experience of the show with physical ephemera and specific timing (with the entire thing kicking off just in time for the Eastern seaboard to be getting ready for bed).
The State of the Podcast Business, According to the People Shaping It by Ashley Carman
An invite-only crowd of podcast executives gathered with Carman and the On Air Presents team in Los Angeles for a discussion of the business of podcasting, including on-stage interviews with MeidasTouch co-founder Ben Meiselas and Shots Podcast Network president John Shahidi. Meiselas says he’s frequently asked why MeidasTouch doesn’t make the jump from new media (namely podcasting and video production) to running a cable TV network. His argument is, with new media, he has more reach than legacy media, framing getting a “real” TV presence as a step down. Shahidi says Netflix’s aspirations of taking popular video podcasts off YouTube with licensing deals is a tough sell, as that involves giving up the advertising revenue and exposure of being out on the open web.
CRA Audio ID – Unified cross-network identity solution
Australia’s industry body for commercial radio and audio has rolled out CRA Audio ID. The “unified cross-network identity solution” enables the ability for a single listener to be identified with the same ID number across radio stations and podcasts consumed from multiple different companies across Australian media (specifically ARN, Nine Audio, Nova Entertainment, and Southern Cross Austero). Which then allows for more educated de-duplification of audience members. The ID is now trading on Google’s Display & Video 360.
As for the rest of the news…
- RSS.com has launched a full free podcast hosting plan with unlimited episodes, unlimited audio, and the fundamentals needed to start and grow a podcast.
- Mission Media AI has secured funding at an eight-figure valuation to accelerate company growth. Plans for the capital include investing in their proprietary tech stack, opening a flagship New York office, and enhancing cross-platform monetization opportunities for creators and brands.
- Newsletter platform beehiiv has launched several new offerings, including the ability to sell digital products directly in a newsletter (beehiiv won’t take a cut) and beefed-up podcast integration, allowing embeds of episodes in newsletters and set up a beehiiv-hosted podcast site from an existing RSS feed.
- Triton Digital has partnered with The Washington Post to power their digital audio strategy, including podcast, monetization, and measurement.
- Variety covers the announcement from YouTube of new platform-exclusive content coming from top creators like Ms. Rachel, Trevor Noah, and Dhar Mann.
- Audiochuck has added Campside Media’s podcast Chameleon to their lineup.
- Podcast Nation, in partnership with The Bravo Docket, brought podcasting to Bravo TV’s annual BravoCon to host a mini-convention in the form of CreatorCon, a one-night meetup with 50+ Bravo podcast hosts and 175 registered fans/guests.
