Before I get into the top story, a quick reminder that a new Sounds Profitable study is coming out next week! The Creators 2025 launches next Wednesday, December 10th, at 1:00 p.m. EST with a live presentation by Tom Webster. Register now and be one of the first to receive the full report, including looks into who’s making podcasts, why they do it, and what friction points are causing them to leave podcasting.
The Podcast Show returns to London for its fifth year
TPS is returning to Islington this coming spring, specifically the 21st and 22nd of May, 2026. In addition TPS has announced the first eight members of their International Advisory Board, a group of figureheads from the global podcast community meant to keep TPS content current and purposeful. With this upcoming fifth edition of The Podcast Show London, Sounds Profitable is returning as a sponsor for our fourth year running of the overall event, a keynote presentation by Tom Webster, and we’re also returning as a sponsor of the brand stage. Speaking of bringing things back to PSL: Sounds Profitable will be hosting our pre-show networking event again in 2026. Stay tuned for more details.
Acast and Little Dot Studios want a bigger piece of the YouTube podcast biz
Tubefilter covers today’s announcement that Acast and Little Dot Studios have partnered to launch a UK-based program designed to increase ad opportunities for YouTube podcasters. The partnership, laid out in more detail in their press release, allows Acast UK creators access to scaled ad inventory and growth support on YouTube. An adaptation to the needs of publishers, agencies, and holding companies by rolling out a comprehensive (and managed) option across the multiple media channels podcasting has evolved into. A quick quote from Bryan Barletta: “While managing 360° campaigns for creators isn’t necessarily new for Acast, the expansion to utilizing native advertising tools, such as streaming ad insertion on YouTube, and creating a cohesive dashboard is new and exciting.”
Expansion, Fragmentation, and the Opportunities Ahead in 2026 by Ben Robins
The latest issue of Sound Insights takes a look at several pieces of podcasting research, including the Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights Podcast Download Fall 2025 report. From the Podcast Download, weekly podcast consumers spend 54% of their time consuming narrative podcasts instead of chatcasts (e.g. interviews/talk shows). While it’s easy to extrapolate news of video podcasting’s growth and restructuring of companies founded on the idea of narrative podcasting’s prominence, audiences continue consuming narrative content. As another report in the issue notes, 92% of podcast audiences, even the ones partaking in video, primarily listen to the podcasts they consume. There is still opportunity for both mediums, especially those who understand the consumption behaviors of their audience. A video podcast that takes the extra step of describing relevant on-screen content, as well as regularly reminding viewers they have an audio-only version of the show is setting itself up for success with all forms of podcast-consumer.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: it’s a bit late to talk Cyber Monday strategies. Stick with me. Lotame has cracked open their Data Exchange and has used their data to build five recommendations for marketing strategy during the lead-up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. Findings that lean heavily on figuring out which kind of market best fits you, which niche brands want to play in, and how to connect with those niches. High-intent niches are valuable, such as parents shopping for baby & toddler gear (13.8x more likely to shop during Black Friday/Cyber Monday). From the business of podcasting’s perspective, this time of year is perfect for podcast advertising. Kids & Family podcasts running ads meant to catch the ear of co-listening parents, sports podcasts turning the ear of people thinking about what to buy their fantasy football buddies, ‘tis the season. Side note: shout-out to Next Broadcast Media co-founder Lemya Soltani for posting about this on Linkedin!
As for the rest of the news…
- American Public Media has promoted Thomas De Napoli to VP and head of sales and underwriting (congrats!)
- YouTube has launched a new personalized “YouTube Recap” feature that, similar to YouTube Music’s Recap feature, shows YouTube users 12 cards spotlighting favorite channels, interests, and viewing habit evolution throughout the year. Additionally, they’ve published a slate of Trending lists, including top topics, creators, and podcasts.
- Analyst Adam Bowie is back with a breakdown of Edison Research’s top 25 podcasts in the UK for Q3 2025, including his own tracker charting how shows perform in the chart over several years.
- The Washington Post has a new post covering BravoCon 2025, the convention bringing together fans and stars of hit Bravo TV shows (including CreatorCon, a side event by Podcast Nation that organized fan meetups with over 50 Bravo podcast hosts and digital creators).
- PodcastOne has signed former Yankees outfielder Clint Frazier for distribution rights to his podcast Life After the Show.
- Dr. Lauri Santos of The Happiness Lab has launched a new campaign dubbed Pods Fight Poverty, in which multiple shows (including the entire Pushkin Industries network) are collaborating to help lift three Rwandan villages out of extreme poverty.
